UN summit urges actions to meet world anti-poverty goals

The UN General Assembly on Friday approved a multistage work plan for 2005 that culminates ina high-level review of worldwide progress towards attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Unanimously adopting a resolution on the format and organization of its work from late June through mid-September, theassembly agreed that a High-Level Millennium review would be held from September next year.

The assembly agreed that the summit should include the same format of debates and round-table discussions of the 2000 Millennium Summit.

At that meeting four years ago, world leaders adopted the Millennium Declaration that provided a blueprint to build a betterand safer world for the next century through collective security and a global partnership for development.

The world anti-poverty goals aim at a series of ambitious targets, ranging from halving extreme poverty, to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS, to providing universal primary education, all by 2015.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in his latest report on the matter, unveiled his ideas for the five-year review summit that the decisions to be taken at the meeting "may determine the whole future of the United Nations."

"Even more important, they will offer us our best perhaps our only chance to ensure a safer, more just and more prosperous world in the new century, not only for our own sakes but for those of our children and grandchildren," the UN chief said in his report.

The assembly also decided to hold a High-level Dialogue on Financing for Development as a follow-up to the 2002 UN International Conference on Financing for Development, which was held in Monterrey, Mexico.

Source: Xinhua