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 Hua Jiang, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Iraq Talks

Talks resumed today in Vienna between the United Nations and Iraq, as the two sides sought a formula for ending the stalemate between Iraq and the Security Council over the return of United Nations weapons inspectors to that country.

Expert level discussions took place this morning at the United Nations International Centre, after which Secretary-General Kofi Annan was briefed on their outcome by two senior United Nations officials, who had participated in those closed talks.

They are Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and Hans Blix, Executive Chairman of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission for Iraq (UNMOVIC).

In the afternoon, the Secretary-General met one-on-one with the head of the Iraqi delegation, Foreign Minister Naji Sabri.  The full delegations then sat down for a two-hour final plenary session.

We expect that the Secretary-General will talk to the press once today’s session ends, and we’ll try to make his comments available to you as soon as we get them.

In his opening comments to the Iraqis when the talks began on Thursday morning, the Secretary-General said that the Security Council took note of progress achieved in the first two rounds of talks, and hoped that this third round would result in conclusive developments.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister thanked the Secretary-General and outlined his delegation’s approach to the discussions.

The discussions yesterday focused on disarmament, the questions Iraq had submitted during the first round of talks and the return of Kuwaiti property and other documents.  Ambassador Vorontsov outlined the mechanism for the return by Iraq of the Kuwaiti national archives, which was then discussed at the expert level yesterday afternoon.

Following the morning session yesterday, the Secretary-General and the Foreign Minister briefly talked to the press.  The Secretary-General said, “We had a good round and a very good atmosphere”.  The Foreign Minister added, “We exchanged views in a serious and earnest manner”.

Asked if he expected to achieve something by today, the Secretary-General replied, “Inshallah”.  The Foreign Minister was asked if he had gotten the answers he wanted to his questions.  “Inshallah”, he joked.

We now have all the transcripts of the Secretary-General's press encounters upstairs.

**Security Council

There are no Security Council meetings or consultations scheduled for today.

The Council’s last meeting took place early Wednesday evening, when it decided unanimously to extend the mandate of the United Nations Mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina (UNMIBH), which had been due to expire at the end of that day, until 15 July.

That rollover provides more time for Security Council members to discuss language to address United States concerns about the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (ICC), whose Statute entered into force last Monday.

In discussions on Wednesday afternoon, Council members did not come to any agreement on language for a resolution addressing the Criminal Court, but members have agreed to discuss the matter further in the coming days.

**Afghanistan

In Afghanistan, the emergency phase of the clearance operation in Spin Boldak has completed.  As you will remember, on 27 June, there was an explosion at the government ammunition dump there, which had left a lot of unexploded ordnance scattered in a wide area.

The teams have removed all the hazardous materials in the community areas and from the compound.  All dangerous ordnance has been neutralized and destroyed.

The Afghanistan Support Group will meet in Geneva on Thursday 11 July under the chairmanship of Norway, with representatives of the Afghan Transitional Authority, Afghanistan's neighbouring and other interested countries, the United Nations and other intergovernmental and private humanitarian organizations.

This meeting aims to highlight the urgent relief and recovery needs and recurrent budget requirements for the Transitional Administration.

**Angola

Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima today completed a mission to Angola, accompanied by senior officials of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the World Food Programme (WFP), to assess the humanitarian situation on the ground in that country.

He said that he had a useful discussion yesterday with Angolan Government ministers on moving into a new partnership in humanitarian and development assistance.  The United Nations, he said, will explore ways to make sure that all Angolans can benefit from a “peace dividend” at the end of their three-decade war.

Oshima also said he was deeply impressed by his visit earlier this week to Kuito, in Bie province, which he said was “one of the hardest hit locations in the country.  The scars of war are everywhere.”

He urged assistance for Angola’s people, saying that about a quarter of Angola’s population -- some 3 million people -– will need some form of assistance in the months ahead.

We have his statement to the press upstairs.

**Sierra Leone

The Secretary-General’s Special Representative in Sierra Leone, Oluyemi Adeniji, met with members of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Freetown yesterday.

He said that it has become a challenge to establish transitional justice organs in the country, and both the United Nations Mission and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights had worked closely to ensure that experienced and capable persons were appointed as commissioners.

Adeniji informed the commissioners that fund-raising for the Commission had not been as successful as it had been with the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and said he hoped more donors would make generous contributions so the Commission could meet its mandate.

The seven-member Commission, composed of four national and three international commissioners, will be inaugurated today by President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah.

We have a press release with more details upstairs.

**Liberia

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is presenting details today to donors of a new $10.4 million appeal for emergency assistance to Liberian refugees who have fled following recent fighting in that country.

The appeal calls for assistance for up to 100,000 Liberians now in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Côte d’Ivoire.

High Commissioner Ruud Lubbers has also issued an urgent plea for humanitarian access to tens of thousands of Liberian civilians and refugees displaced by the recent fighting, and for their safe passage.  UNHCR is particularly concerned about those who fled the Sinje refugee camp following a rebel attack there on 20 June.

We have more details in today’s briefing notes from UNHCR, which also report that an estimated 10,000 Angolan refugees have spontaneously returned home from Zambia since the ceasefire this March.

**West Timor

The UNHCR also says that nearly 5,000 refugees have returned from West to East Timor since the beginning of June, bringing the total number of returnees to more than 213,000.

UNHCR hopes that the dialogue it is scheduled to facilitate tomorrow in Batugade between representatives of East Timor’s Government and a refugee

delegation headed by former militia leader Joao Tavares will lead to further significant refugee returns.

Tavares claims to have the following of several thousand refugees, and UNHCR believes that if he returns he could bring a significant number of returnees with him.

Fewer than 50,000 refugees are believed to still be living in West Timor.

**High Commissioner for Human Rights

High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson wrapped up a three-day visit to Peru today.

Yesterday she met with President Alejandro Toledo and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. 

During her visit, Robinson signed an agreement on cooperation with the Government.  She reaffirmed her Office’s pledge to support human rights reform in Peru, and said her office would work with both the Government and civil society to support human rights reforms aimed for all Peruvians, particularly the most vulnerable.

**World Food Programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) applauded three donations this week towards its appeal for more than $500 million for southern Africa.  The United Kingdom had given more than $28 million, Canada $1 million and the Netherlands $500,000.

The money will be used to purchase 50,000 metric tons of food for distribution in Southern Africa, where WFP hopes to feed more than 10 million people facing starvation.

In other news, WFP is calling on the humanitarian community to recognize the importance of food and good nutrition in combating HIV/AIDS.  WFP says even though medicines and education are important in combating the disease, food is the first defense that keeps people healthier.

We have press releases upstairs with more details.

**Budget

Now, the budget.  Germany today became the 84^th Member State to pay its 2002 regular budget contribution in full with a payment of more than $109 million.  Germany also made a payment of more than $18 million to the peacekeeping budget.

We'll have a guest at our briefing on Monday.  Celhia de Lavarene, Special Advisor to the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in Bosnia, and head of the Special Trafficking Programme, will tell you about her work.

We have the Week Ahead, which we have already put out upstairs.  I just want to remind you that after Vienna the Secretary-General next week will visit South Africa, Nigeria and Sudan.

That's all I've got for you.  Any questions?

Alright.  Have a nice weekend.  Thank you.

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