The reform of the United Nations and the acceleration of development dominated the second day of the general debate at the 59th session of the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.

Speaking at the debate, Zimbabwean President Robert G. Mugabe stressed the need to reform the United Nations and its related bodies so as to make them more democratic.

"While we welcome the current debate on enhancing the authorityand role of the United Nations, we wish to stress the need to address the core issue of democratization of international governance," Mugabe said.

On development, Mugabe said many countries including his own might not be able to meet the goals and targets set by the Millennium Declaration, adopted four years ago, which envisions the halving of the number of people living in extreme poverty and reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS by 2015.

Mugabe urged the international community and the United Nationsto continue their efforts to find solutions to the scourge of HIV/AIDS that "has ravaged our peoples and economies."

Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin said the reform of the United Nations should be designed to put the common humanity at the center of the world body's agenda.

"Unless we also act collectively on the basis of our common humanity, the rich will become richer, the poor will become poorer,and hundreds of millions of people will be at risk. Thus we need institutions whose primary obligation is to our common humanity," he told the debate.

While expressing support for the UN reform that will make the Security Council more effective, Martin said Canada looks forward to recommendations that go beyond the Security Council.

Canada has proposed a special meeting of leaders from some 20 developed and developing countries to discuss collective challenges and responsibilities, the prime minister said.

Romanian President Ion Iliescu, in his speech, urged quicker actions of reform so that the United Nations can better meet the challenge of the current world.

The necessity to speed up the reform is more urgent than ever, the president said.

He said the United Nations is ideally placed to manage globalization, a process that is unavoidable and brings in both challenges and opportunities. All UN member states must promote regional and transcontinental integration, as vehicles and instruments of a "harnessed" globalization.

In his speech, Namibian President Sam Nujoma described the widening income gap between the industrialized North and the developing South as a "dangerous time bomb." "The planet was too small to perpetuate the coexistence of abject poverty and abundance of prosperity within its fold."

The world had enormous resources to fight and defeat poverty and hunger, and the international community must insist on a realistic balance between global spending on war and weapons technology on the one hand, and the implementation of the millennium development goals and targets on the other, Nujoma said.

Commenting on the UN reform, he said the organization, and in particular the UN Security Council, could not continue operating on the basis of undemocratic structures of representation. "Africaneeded its place as a key player in this world body. Africa demanded its share of responsibility, and now was the time for that to happen," he stressed.

At the debate, South African President Thabo Mbeki urged the developing and developed nations to face up together to the commonchallenges and threats facing the human society.

He said both the powerful and the disempowered would agree thatthe international community must act together to confront the challenges and threats. They "will undoubtedly agree that terrorism and war represent a serious threat to all humanity. Theywill agree that we are right to make the commitment in the Millennium Declaration to work for 'a just and lasting peace all over the world in accordance with the purposes and principles of the (UN) Charter.'"

They would also agree that poverty, want and underdevelopment constitute serious problems all humanity must confront, he said.

He deplored the situation where the contemporary distribution of power often makes it difficult for the concerns of the poor to take high priority on the global agenda and global program of action.

Meanwhile, in his part, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf urged the industrialized world to support the endeavor for an Islamic renaissance especially through adequate financial and technical assistance and larger trade opportunities.

"Most importantly, justice must be offered to Islamic peoples in the form of resolution of all outstanding disputes which affectMuslims. There is no time to lose. Action has to be taken before an iron curtain finally descends between the West and the Islamic World," he warned.

Noting the increasing economic and social disparities, Musharraf said "a bold and innovative global strategy is required to redress the growing inequalities." With good governance being aprecondition for development, "it is equally essential to rectify the glaring inequities and imbalances in the international financial and trade systems."

"Official development assistance can and must be doubled. Innovative ways can and must be adopted to generate the financial resources required for development," he said.

Unless the world's leaders generate the political will requiredto agree and implement effective measures urgently, the millenniumdevelopment goals and targets would remain a mirage, he warned.

Source: Xinhua