UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday called for joint efforts by both developed and developing countries on issues of aid, trade, debt and development.

In a statement at the Special High-Level Meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council with the Bretton Woods Institutions, Annan said people around the world are facing the same issues of " aid, trade, debt and development".

"The coming months offer us a unique opportunity to make real changes in the international system -- changes that can make the world freer, fairer and safer for all its inhabitants," Annan noted.

He said the General Assembly's high-level dialogue on Finance for Development in June will be followed by the G8 summit in July, the autumn meetings of the Bank and the Fund in September, and the WTO ministerial in December.

"All those meetings should be seen in the broader context of the agenda of the UN Summit in September -- the occasion when a whole range of vital commitments can be brought together," he stressed.

On the development side, those commitments must come from both developing and developed countries, he added.

Annan urged all developing countries to commit themselves to sound, transparent and accountable national strategies, which they themselves devise and of which they take full ownership, for mobilizing all their resources in the fight against poverty.

Meanwhile, he also urged all donor communities to commit themselves to timetables for reaching the 0.7 per cent ODA target, with front-loading through an international finance facility or other mechanism, and an active search for new sources of finance, as well as new ways to ensure that the developing countries' debt burden is genuinely sustainable.

"I believe our chances of winning all these commitments are greater if we place them squarely in the context of the September Summit," he said.