Annan to chair UN board meeting next week in Geneva, donors' session in Oslo

Secretary-General Kofi Annan will travel early next week to Switzerland and Norway to address or chair several meetings in Geneva and attend a donors' conference in Oslo in support of rehabilitation in southern Sudan, where a peace accord in January between the Government and rebels ended Africa's longest-running civil war.

In Geneva he will address the UN Commission on Human Rights and chair a Chief Executives Board (CEB) retreat attended by the heads of the UN specialized agencies, Bretton Woods Institutions, the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Trade Organization (WTO) and UN funds and programmes.

The CEB meets twice a year and is chaired by the Secretary-General.

Mr. Annan has also invited all UN staff members to a meeting next Tuesday in the General Assembly Hall at New York Headquarters where he will take questions on the UN's immediate priorities in light of his recent report calling for reform of the world body and the forthcoming September summit of Member States.

He will also discuss concerns arising from the latest interim report of the Independent Inquiry Committee probing allegations of mismanagement and misconduct in the UN Oil-for-Food programme for Iraq as well as internal changes which will make the UN more effective in the future.