Achieving Millennium Goals focus of Secretary-General’s meeting with UK Chancellor

The following statement was issued today in London by Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

I will meet with Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown this evening.  I intend to discuss next year’s summit at the General Assembly, where we will review progress on achieving the Millennium Development Goals.  Many of these Goals, including the one of halving poverty by 2015, are far from being met.  I will appeal to the Chancellor and the UK (United Kingdom) Government to use the upcoming UK presidencies of the G-8 (Group of Eight industrialized countries) and the EU (European Union) to work for the necessary political breakthrough and the additional resources needed to achieve those Goals.  In this context, I will be supporting the G-7 (Group of Seven) donors considering seriously the Chancellor’s proposal for an International Finance Facility that would be capable of doubling aid flows to the developing world up to $100 billion a year.

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