ACTIVITIES OF SECRETARY-GENERAL IN GABON, EQUATORIAL GUINEA WITH STOPOVER IN GHANA, 23 - 24 MARCH

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew from Kisangani in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Libreville in Gabon in the afternoon of Thursday, 23 March.

That evening he held talks with President El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba.  He and Nane Annan later dined with the President and First Lady Edith Lucie Bongo.

The following morning he flew to the commercial city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea where he met with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

He visited both leaders as part of his efforts to mediate a maritime territorial dispute between the two countries.

Following his meeting in Bata, he told reporters that discussions are continuing and that experts would again be meeting in Geneva in May.  The Secretary-General noted the importance of the two Presidents and himself deciding to accelerate the process to finish the negotiations and have good results between now and the end of the year.

On his way back to New York, the Secretary-General stopped over in Accra, Ghana, at the end of a nearly two-week trip to Africa that had taken him to South Africa, Madagascar, the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.