The United Nations GeneralAssembly opened its 59th session here on Tuesday with calls from its new president for urgent and effective actions to meet global threats and challenges ranging from wars and terrorism to disease and poverty.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (L), sits alongside General Assembly President and Foreign Minister of Gabon, Jean Ping (C), and Under-Secretary General Jian Chen (R), during the opening of the UN's 59th session at UN headquarters, Sept. 14. (Xinhua/AFP)

"Confronting such a situation, the peoples of the world more than ever have their eyes turned towards the United Nations, the sole institution with a universal vocation where the concerns and aspirations of all humankind are expressed in all their diversity," Foreign Minister Jean Ping of Gabon told the opening meeting.

"The multiplicity of zones of conflict and humanitarian crises,the proliferation of weapons, the recurrence of terrorist acts, the increase in poverty and other afflictions such as the HIV/AIDSpandemic, the degradation of the environment, the resurgence of transnational crime, illicit drug trafficking, the violations of human rights as well as assaults on the rule of law and democracy are, each and every one, concerns for which we must urgently find answers," he said.

Such topics will most likely be among those addressed during the annual gathering of world leaders for the assembly's general debate, which gets underway next Tuesday in New York.

Ping, who succeeded Julian Hunte of St. Lucia, president of the58th session, highlighted the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and itsimpact on international peace and security, the "deeply troubling"situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, the crisis in the Darfur regionof western Sudan and the recent massacre of Congolese refugees in Burundi.

He called for revamping coordination in the field between inter-governmental and non-governmental organizations, enhancing measures to prevent conflict and demobilize combatants, and above all boosting resources for post-conflict reconstruction.

"We must act quickly to find the best means to fight most effectively against terrorism," he added. "Indeed, the scope and tragic brutality of the events that occurred in recent years, evenhere in New York and across the world, demand from us common action and unending vigilance."

But he warned that the daily requirements of peace and securitymust not detract from other pressing questions such as development."That is to say how necessary it is that we act simultaneously in both fields," he declared.

He underscored the importance of fulfilling development pledgessuch as those contained in the UN Millennium Declaration aimed at halving extreme poverty and hunger, reducing infant and maternal mortality and boosting access to education and development, all by2015, in order to slash disparities between and within nations.

"We have no other choice," he said. "Our nations, our respectivepeoples expect much. We cannot remain deaf to this legitimate aspiration for a better world, these legitimate demands for respect for the rights of man, for the security or personas and particularly the most vulnerable."

Nearly 100 heads of state or government, including US PresidentGeorge W. Bush, are due to attend the two-week-long annual generaldebate. On the eve of the debate, leaders from 55 countries, including France and Brazil, will hold a day-long summit on hungerand poverty.

Source: Xinhua