Annan leaves tomorrow on trip to attend African Union, G8 summits

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi begins 10 days of overseas travel tomorrow to take part in two major summit meetings and deliver a keynote address on achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the ambitious set of targets for slashing a host of socio-economic ills afflicting the world by 2015.

Mr. Annan will attend the African Union summit in Sirte, Libya, on 4 and 5 July and the G8 Summit of industrialized nations in Gleneagles, United Kingdom, on 7 and 8 July.

On 1 July, he is to attend the 500th Anniversary of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he will receive an honorary fellowship, and on 6 July he will deliver a keynote address in St. Paul's Cathedral in London on the MDGs, which seek to halve extreme poverty and hunger, sharply reduce maternal and infant mortality and vastly expand access to education and health care, all by 2015.

Mr. Annan has already sent a letter to the G8 leaders calling on them to rise to the challenge and provide leadership on a full raft of issues, from improving the lot of Africa's poor to combating terrorism and countering global warming.