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

AND THE SPOKESMAN FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT

The following is a near-verbatim transcript of today’s noon briefing by Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General and Richard Sydenham, Spokesman for the President of the General Assembly.

Briefing by the Secretary-General’s Spokesman

Good afternoon.

**Security Council

The Security Council is holding its first consultations for the month of September.  On the agenda is an upcoming meeting on “Justice and the Rule of Law: the UN role” and a briefing by Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Marie Guéhenno on the Democratic Republic of the Congo on the transfer of security responsibilities from the Interim Emergency Multinational Force (IEMF) to the UN Mission’s Ituri Brigade in Bunia.  British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, the Council President for September, is scheduled to brief you at about 12:30 on the Council's work for this month, as well as on today’s programme.  The programme is posted on the UK Mission and the Security Council Web sites.

**UNMOVIC

In its fourteenth quarterly report to the Security Council, the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC), on Iraq, says that despite the damage sustained by its Baghdad monitoring centre, it is able and ready to resume field operations in Iraq relating to disarmament at short notice should the Security Council decide that it is to do so.  Since the Council has not revisited UNMOVIC’s mandate, the Commission has continued with those parts of its mandate that remain operable.  One of these is a project aimed at charting what is known and understood of Iraq’s programme of weapons of mass destruction, including staffing, financing and procurement.  UNMOVIC’s core professional staff stands at 57, down from 76 at the end of May.  The full report is out on the racks and we expect that the Commission’s Acting Executive Chairman, Demetrius Perricos, will present this report to the Council tomorrow morning.

**Republic of Congo

The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) today is drawing attention to the Pool region, which is in the south-western part of the Republic of the Congo.  Based on several assessment missions to the area, OCHA says that while the region may be out of political crisis, it remains in acute humanitarian crisis.  Infrastructure has been completely destroyed; sanitation is seriously lacking; the health and nutritional situation is of grave concern; and children are dying of acute malnutrition.

Reconstruction remains a challenge for the population.  Due to large scale looting, many are without working tools such as hoes, machetes, and axes.  OCHA reports that in some areas, people must walk over 60 kilometres to reach health centres.  A relief flight from the UN Humanitarian Response Depot in Brindisi, Italy with items such as water storage and distribution equipment, tents, sanitation items, blankets and kitchen items, is expected to arrive in the capital, Brazzaville, today.

**Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty

In a message to the Conference on Facilitating the Entry into Force of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, the Secretary-General calls upon all States that have yet to ratify or sign the Treaty to do so without delay.  He notes that seven years have already passed since the Treaty was open for signature.  “Delay increases the risk that nuclear testing might resume”, he says, adding, “and it jeopardizes efforts to take further steps towards the goal of nuclear disarmament”.  He particularly directs the call to sign or ratify the Treaty to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, as well to eleven States, whose ratification is needed for the Treaty to enter into force, underscoring that “no nuclear testing must be tolerated under any circumstances”.  We have the full text of his message available upstairs.

**UNICEF

The United Nations Children’s Fund, or UNICEF, today announced the appointment of Nils Kastberg as the new Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.  He will take over from Per Engebak.  We have a press release with details on that.

**Lectures

And finally, the fifth lecture of the Secretary-General’s Lecture Series will take place on 15 September, when Professor Seyyed Hossein Nasr, a respected Muslim scholar at George Washington University, will speak on the topic “Islam and the West”.  The lecture will comprise a brief presentation, followed by questions, and is part of a continuing effort within the United Nations to create a strengthened framework for dialogue and mutual understanding for the international community.

There is also a lecture tomorrow afternoon that you are all welcome to attend:  the first of a series of three lectures to mark the centenary of the birth of UN diplomat and Nobel Laureate Ralph Bunche.  From 1 to 3 p.m. tomorrow in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium, Dennis Ross, the President of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, and Edward Mortimer, the Director of the Executive Office of the Secretary-General, will discuss “Ralph Bunche and the Question of Palestine”.  Former UN Under-Secretary-General Brian Urquhart will moderate the event.

And that’s all I have for you today.  If we have no questions...

Question and Answer

Question:  I understand that Secretary of State Colin Powell called the Secretary-General this morning.  Can you tell us what he said?

Spokesman:  I can’t tell you what he said.  I can confirm that the two did speak this morning but I have no readout of what they said.  I usually don’t get such readouts.

Briefing by the General Assembly President’s Spokesman

Good afternoon.  On meetings of General Assembly bodies today, this afternoon the Committee on Host Country Relations will meet in the Economic and Social Council Chamber at 3 p.m. and the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions (ACABQ) meets today in closed sessions.

Tomorrow, President Kavan will co-chair an interactive discussion on the role of civil society in conflict prevention with Assistant Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Mr. Danilo Türk.  Guest speakers, who will present reports from their regions, will be Mr. Paul van Tongeren, Executive Director of the European Centre for Conflict Prevention; Mr. Andres Serbin, Coordinadora Regional de Investigaciones Economicas y Sociales (CRIES), Argentina; Mrs. Raya Kadyrova, Foundation for Tolerance International of Kyrgyzstan; Mr. Emmanuel Bombande, West Africa Network for Peace-building (WANEP) of Ghana; and Mr. Jan Egeland, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs.  UN accredited media are invited to attend the session, which will be held tomorrow morning.

And on Thursday and Friday, 4 and 5 September, the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People will hold the UN International Conference of Civil Society in Support of the Palestinian People, on the theme “End the Occupation”.  The holding of this Conference is mandated by General Assembly resolutions 57/107 and 57/108 of 3 December 2002.  There is a press release out on the racks about this conference.  Any questions?  Thank you.

Question and Answer

Question:  Do you have any information about the meeting with the host country today?  It’s on the agenda.

Spokesman:  I don’t have any information on that yet.

* *** *