UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is due on Wednesday to open a summit of 151 heads of state and government, which he has called "a defining moment" for the United Nations.
When the summit ends on Friday, it is expected to adopt a declaration promising to "spare no efforts" to free mankind from the scourge of war, extreme poverty, and the threat of environmental disaster, and to promote democracy and the rule of law.
The declaration is based on a report by Annan to the UN General Assembly in April, which suggested goals for 2015. They include:
- to halve from 20 to 10 percent the proportion of the world's population without access to safe drinking water;
- to halve to 11 percent the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day;
- to ensure that all children complete primary education;
- to halt and begin to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS.
Annan's report, "We the Peoples, the Role of the United Nations in the 21st Century," indicated widespread public skepticism about the willingness of governments to carry out their promises, especially on human rights and the environment.
Peoples are "looking to leaders to turn past commitments into concrete action," Annan told a news conference on Tuesday.
He said he had "no illusions that a single summit can change the world".
But, he added, while "the problems seem huge, in today's world with the technology we have, we have the means to deal with them."
He admitted to being a dreamer, but said: "Dreams are not Utopian. We have the means and the capacity to deal with our problems, if only we can find the political will."
The UN would monitor the work of governments and issue annual reports to "indicate who has done what, who has made progress and who is taking it seriously," he said.
But Annan stressed that governments and the UN would have to involve big business and the private sector in their search for solutions to global problems.
"The issues we are dealing with -- from elimination of poverty to the fight against AIDS, to protection of the environment -- require all hands on deck," he said.
The first speaker in Wednesday morning's plenary session will be US President Bill Clinton, representing the host country.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat are among those scheduled to speak later in the day.
Barak conferred on the sidelines of the summit on Tuesday with King Abdullah of Jordan and with US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.
He was due to meet Clinton on Wednesday, but the president's National Security Advisor, Sandy Berger, played down expectations of a Barak-Arafat meeting, saying: "I don't think this is a make-or-break week."
On Wednesday, heads of state and government are also due to hold the first of four round-table "brainstorming" sessions, which will dovetail with the plenaries.
The meetings will be held in private, to encourage a free exchange of ideas, UN officials said -- UNITED NATIONS (AFP)
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