The United Nations summit opens Wednesday at the UN headquarters in New York.

At the three-day summit, world leaders will focus their discussions on such major international issues as those concerning the strengthening of collective security in the world, nuclear non-proliferation, improvement of human rights, the fight against poverty, and the promotion of human development to realize the UN millennium development goals. A draft Outcome Document will be discussed and adopted by the summit.

In July 1998, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan put forward a the proposal for holding a UN millennium summit. Under the proposal, the 53th UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in December 1998 deciding to hold the "millennium summit" in Sept. 2000, following the inauguration of the 55the UN General Assembly.

The summit was designed to provide a platform for leaders of UN members to conduct extensive consultations on the role of the United Nations and the challenges the world body faces in the 21st century.

On September 6-8, 2000, the millennium summit was held at the UN headquarters in New York, with the theme of "the Functions of the UN in the 21st Century."

More than 160 heads of state or government attended the summit, making it the largest ever convention in UN history. In addition to making formal speeches at the summit, world leaders also participated in four interactive round table meetings for different regions.

A meeting of the UN Security Council at the heads of state level and a summit of the five permanent members of the security council were held simultaneously, focusing on UN peacekeeping operations.

At the three-day millennium summit, world leaders adopted an eight-part "United Nations Millennium Declaration," covering values and principles; peace, security and disarmament; development and poverty eradication; protecting common environment; human rights, democracy and good governance; protecting the vulnerable; meeting the special needs of Africa; and strengthening the United Nations.

The world leaders also agreed on the eight Millennium Development goals (MDGs), which range from halving extreme poverty and hunger to halting the spread of HIV/AIDs and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015.

Source: Xinhua