DAILY PRESS BRIEFING BY THE OFFICE OF THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE SECRETARY-GENERAL

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today's noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General, and Susan Markham, Spokeswoman for the President of the General Assembly.

Spokesman for the Secretary-General

Good afternoon.

The Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries will begin next Monday in Brussels, and the Secretary-General will be leaving this weekend to address that Conference, after which he will be going on to an official visit to Moscow.

We've Yvette Stevens here, who is the Special Coordinator for Africa and the Least Developed Countries for the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, to join us to tell you a little something about the Conference.  Welcome,

Ms. Stevens.  We will get to you just after we finish these two other briefings. (Issued as a separate press release.)

I understand that we also have a number of visiting journalists today from China, The China Daily and Xinhua, and also from Poland and Armenia.  Welcome to the briefing.

**Secretary-General/AIDS

The Secretary-General, in his second trip to Washington this week, met today at the White House with United States President George W. Bush and Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, in a meeting in which President Bush pledged that the United States would contribute $200 million to the global fund against AIDS proposed by the Secretary-General.

That pledge is the first one made by a government for the proposed global fund, which is part of an effort, reiterated by the Secretary-General today, to mobilize an additional $7 billion to $10 billion to fight AIDS worldwide.

In remarks made at the White House Rose Garden following President Bush's pledge, the Secretary-General said, "This founding contribution by the United States, with the promise to do more, will encourage and energize others to act."

He thanked Bush for placing the United States at the forefront of the global fight against AIDS, and added that, as governments prepare to meet for next month's General Assembly special session on AIDS, "I believe today will be remembered as the day we began to turn the tide."

While the Secretary-General met with the President, his wife, Nane, met with United States first lady, Laura Bush, in the White House residence.

The Secretary-General headed back to New York right after that meeting.  I think he is expected back in the building within the half-hour or so and we will squawk when he arrives in case any of you want to doorstep him.  Is this the news?

He is expected in 10 minutes.  So it is 12:05.  At about 12:15 he is expected in the front door.

On his arrival here, or shortly after his arrival, he will join the members of the Security Council for their monthly luncheon.

**Security Council

There are no Security Council consultations today.

On Monday, the Council will hold an open meeting to consider the inter-agency mission that visited West Africa, which was led by Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs Ibrahima Fall.  Fall is expected to be one of the speakers at that meeting.

And then, speaking of Council activities, also on Monday, immediately after the noon briefing –- so between 12:20, 12:25 -- Ambassador Jean-David Levitte of France will talk to you about the upcoming Security Council mission to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which he will head.

**Kosovo/Balkans

The Kosovo Force, or KFOR, announced today a major seizure of weapons it believes was intended for ethnic Albanian rebels in the Presevo Valley area of southern Serbia.

A KFOR spokesman told us that a large truck carrying timber and three cars accompanying it were stopped outside Pec in western Kosovo on Thursday evening. Among the weapons seized were 52 rocket launchers, five anti-aircraft SAM missiles and a dozen anti-tank rocket launchers.  Seven people were arrested and were being questioned.

Meanwhile, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that the number of ethnic Albanians arriving in Kosovo from the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is now nearly 9,000, but daily arrivals have dwindled to between 350 and 400 people daily.  Some of those arriving in Kosovo alleged that FYROM border police were charging money for allowing them to leave the country. The UNHCR is discussing the allegations with the FYROM government.  There were also reports of villagers being prevented from leaving their homes in mountainous areas by ethnic Albanian separatists, but these reports could not be confirmed independently.

**UNHCR

The Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees today released their latest annual global refugee statistics, which show that at the start of this year, the agency was responsible for 21.1 million or one out of every 284 persons on earth. The statistics include refugees, asylum seekers and internally displaced persons.

The UNHCR says that the largest refugee population increase over the past year was in Pakistan, where the number of Afghan refugees rose by some 800,000. Afghans constitute the largest single refugee population of concern to the UNHCR, with an estimate 3.6 million people or 30 percent of the global refugee population.  Burundi, Iraq, Sudan and Bosnia, in that order are the next four largest refugee-producing countries.

Today’s UNHCR briefing note also includes updates on the return of Eritrean refugees from the Sudan and the relocation of refugees in Guinea to safer areas.

**East Timor

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Ruud Lubbers, has sent a letter to Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid expressing his shock and disappointment with the light sentences handed down last week in Jakarta to six men accused of involvement in the killing of three UNHCR staff members last September in West Timor.

Lubbers said in the letter, which went out on 9 May, that the sentences amount to a failure of justice and are an affront to the deceased, their families, the UNHCR and the United Nations system.  The rulings also create a dangerous environment of impunity for acts against humanitarian workers, he said.

The High Commissioner has been told by Indonesian authorities that an appeal will be made.  The UNHCR's position is that those responsible for these brutal killings must receive sentences proportionate to the crime.

In other Timor news, coffee producers in East Timor will use the United States dollar to make payments for coffee next week, as a step forward in the increasing use of the United States dollar in East Timor's economy.  In February, East Timor's coffee farmers voted overwhelmingly to choose the dollar as their payment currency.  We have more details in a briefing note from Dili.

**World Health Organization

A World Health Organization (WHO)-supported study of 701 children in Tanzania shows that intervention with a single dose of an anti-malarial drug can halve the number of cases of severe malaria and associated anemia.

In a statement in Geneva today, the WHO announced that the latest issue of the British medical journal, Lancet, carries a report of a study on malaria in young children in which the intervention halved severe malaria and associated anemia at an additional cost of just 25 cents per child.  The WHO has held consultations with the United Nations Children’s Fund to discuss the implications of these new findings and they have agreed to proceed rapidly with further work to validate the findings in other malaria affected areas and confirm the safety of the intervention.

In other news from WHO, the World Health Assembly starts Monday in Geneva.  The fifty-fourth Assembly will discuss a global strategy for infant and young child feeding, strengthening health systems, strategies to combat HIV/AIDS and the health effects of depleted uranium.  We have a press release from them on that.

**Signings

Two signings this morning of the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety to the Convention on Biological Diversity.  With the addition of Myanmar and Panama, there are now 95 signatories to that Protocol.

**Press Releases

We have just been informed by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) that the Committee for the United Nations Population Award has announced that this year’s award will go to Dr. Nafis Sadik, the former Executive Director of the UNFPA, and the Japanese Organization for International Cooperation in Family Planning.  We expect a press release with more information later this afternoon.

The two-day ministerial session of the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia ended today in Beirut.  The session endorsed the Commission’s work programme and approved resolutions aimed at strengthening coordination and integration in the world economy.  We have a press release on that, as well.

And then we have the Week Ahead for you, which I won't read here, but you can pick it up in my office.  Any questions before we go to Sue?

**Questions and Answers

Question:  The United States Government has pledged $200 million.  You need 35 times as much as that to even get the lower figure that the Secretary-General is talking about.  So, where is the rest going to come from and how confident are you that it is going to be forthcoming?

Spokesman:  I think the Secretary-General feels that there is a momentum building in the fight against AIDS.  The $200 million, of course, is the first contribution by a government.  There is pressure within some corners of the United States Congress to give even more money in future years.

The Secretary-General said today that he hopes this will prompt other governments to contribute to the fund, and as I mentioned several times, we don’t expect all of the $7 to $10 billion to go into the fund.  We do hope that worldwide the $7 to $10 billion more than is being spent would be spent on the fight against AIDS.  So, a good beginning but just a beginning.

Question:  On the subject of East Timor and the U.S. dollar there, there is an Associated Press story today saying that the United Nations administration there in East Timor is importing hundreds of thousands of American coins in a push to make the U.S. dollar the official currency of East Timor.  A couple of things.  First of all, assuming that it is true, is this something that the United Nations has ever done before in terms of that kind of importation of money to set up an official currency?

Spokesman:  Well, I don’t think it is a push to get the U.S. dollar accepted.  East Timor will decide what currency it wants to use, but it is true that in connection with this and other decisions by individual groups to use the U.S. dollar, the central payments office of the mission has recently bought a significant amount of cash in U.S. currency.  You can get more details on that in the briefing note that is upstairs.

Question:  The $200 million.  Where exactly is it coming from?  Is some other fund that is currently coming to the United Nations, a development fund or any other money being diminished?

Spokesman:  Well, the Secretary-General has said over and over again that he wants this to be new money.  So, he hopes that any government pledging funds to this global fund will not be diverting it from other development assistance; that it will be fresh contributions.  Where it will come in the United States budget, you will have to ask the United States.

Question:  But the Secretary-General hasn't been assured this morning that it is new money?

Spokesman:  I haven't heard that it came up but I don’t have a full read out of the meeting that took place this morning.

Okay. Sue?

Spokeswoman for President of General Assembly

Thank you.

**LDC Conference

The President of the General Assembly will be leaving for Brussels over the weekend to attend the Third United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, which, as Fred said, begins on Monday.  The President will be addressing the Inaugural Ceremony of the Conference and he will also participate in the special event taking place immediately after the ceremony.  The special event will be an inter-active debate on the challenge of eradicating poverty for sustainable development:  the international community's response.  Mr. Holkeri's statement at this special event will focus on the question of how can the international development goals be reached.  The President's remarks at these two events will be made available to you.

As you know, the LDC Conference is the first high-level United Nations meeting following the Millennium Summit.  You will recall that in the Millennium Summit Declaration there was specific reference made to the LDC Conference.  I don’t mean to imply that the Conference was not already scheduled before the Millennium Summit was held.  Of course, it was.  But it is going to address some of the issues that were raised by the world leaders at the Millennium Summit.

In the Declaration, you will recall that it specifically asks the LDC Conference, and in particular the industrialized countries, to:  adopt policies of duty- and quota-free access for exports from least developed countries; to implement debt-relief programmes for the heavily indebted poor countries; and to grant more generous development assistance.  We can expect that Mr. Holkeri will speak about this.  He will return to New York on Wednesday.

**Working Group on Security Council Reform

This week the President has been chairing meetings of the Working Group on Security Council Reform.  Today is the last meeting in this session, which began on Monday.  It is the second substantive session of the Working Group this year.  A number of conference room papers have been prepared to facilitate the discussion.

On Monday and Tuesday there was a general exchange of views on the expansion of the Security Council and this discussion continued this morning.  On Wednesday and Thursday there was a discussion on the so-called cluster 2 issues -– those dealing with the working methods of the Security Council.

The President considers the discussions this week to have been constructive –- delegations actively participated and there was a good working atmosphere.  He has reminded delegations that in the Millennium Summit Declaration, Member States resolved to intensify efforts to achieve a comprehensive reform of the Security

Council in all its aspects.  In the President's view, this implies that there is a renewed willingness to move forward on this issue.

However, he suggests that before the next session of the Working Group, which will be in June, delegations need to consider very carefully whether indeed they have been able to intensify their efforts and whether an additional effort is needed.  The next session of the Working Group on Security Council Reform is scheduled for 11 to 15 June.  The co-facilitators of the Working Group are the Ambassadors of Iceland and Sri Lanka.

**General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS

Also today, the General Assembly is holding an informal meeting concerning preparations for the special session of the General Assembly on HIV/AIDS, which will be held from 25 to 27 June.  Delegations were being briefed on preparation for the open-ended informal consultations of the plenary, which will be held the week after next.  The open-ended consultations are taking the place of the normal preparatory meetings that are normally held for special sessions of the General Assembly or special conferences.

The co-facilitators for this preparatory process are the Ambassadors of Australia and Senegal, who chaired this morning's meeting.  At the end of the meeting, a draft was circulated of the Declaration of Commitment, which is the outcome document to be adopted by the special session of the General Assembly. This draft will be the focus of the discussions during the meetings starting

21 May.  We hope that during that week we will get the co-facilitators or somebody else to come and brief you about progress being made.  So far 20 heads of State or government have announced that they will attend the special session of the General Assembly.

**West Timor Killings

Since the issue of the sentences for the six militia convicted of killing

3 UNHCR staff has been raised, I would like to take this opportunity of putting on the record the reaction of the President of the General Assembly to this.

The President of the General Assembly was surprised and disappointed upon learning about the light sentences given last week to the six men who were found guilty of the brutal murder of three UNHCR staff in West Timor.  United Nations humanitarian staff routinely expose themselves to risk in carrying out their work. Member States must do their utmost to protect them.

**Committee on Information

Another issue:  the Committee on Information, which has been meeting for the past two weeks, will conclude this afternoon.  The draft resolution which the Committee will adopt should be available by now.  If not, my office can provide informal copies.

**Daily News

And may I just say that although I do not come to the briefing daily, you can find out daily details of the President’s schedule and details of what he has been doing plus related matters on his Web site which is www.un.org/ga/president. Also my assistant, Minna Kaihovirta, is always available for you in the Office of the Spokesman on the third floor.

Thank you.

* *** *