UN POPULATION REPORT SAYS GOOD REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH

FOR WOMEN ESSENTIAL TO ENDING POVERTY

2002 Survey to Be Launched Next Week at Ceremonies

In London, New York, Washington and Other Cities around World

GENERAL ASSEMBLY PRESIDENT CALLS FOR REAFFIRMED COMMITMENT TO EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

FOR DISABLED PERSONS, IN MESSAGE ON INTERNATIONAL DAY

Following is the message of Jan Kavan (Czech Republic), President of the fifty-seventh session of the General Assembly, on the International Day of Disabled Persons, 3 December:

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Fifth Committee

29^th Meeting (PM)

DEMANDS FROM NEW MANDATES, UNFORESEEN EXPENDITURES, COSTING VARIATIONS

CONFRONT MEMBER STATES WITH STEEP INCREASES, COMMITTEE IS TOLD

Fifty-seventh General Assembly

Plenary

66^th Meeting (AM)

GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS SIX RESOLUTIONS AS IT CONCLUDES DEBATE

ON MIDDLE EAST SITUATION AND QUESTION OF PALESTINE

Speakers Call for Return to Peace

Negotiations and Israeli Withdrawal from Syrian Golan

Biographical Note

NEW PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE OF FRANCE PRESENTS CREDENTIALS

(Based on information received from the Protocol and Liaison Service.)

Jean-Marc de La Sablière, the new Permanent Representative of France to the United Nations, presented his credentials today to Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Secretary-General arrived in Paris from the Netherlands on the evening of 24 November, meeting next day with French President Jacques Chirac and Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin.

  On the morning of 21 November, the Secretary-General and his wife Nane flew from Zagreb to Amsterdam, and they had a private lunch with Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands at The Hague.

In the morning of 20 November, the Secretary-General flew to Zagreb, where he was greeted on arrival by Croatian President Stjepan Mesic.

                                                  SG/SM/8537

EVENTS IN AFGHANISTAN PROMPT OPTIMISM, BUT ‘STEADY DETERMINATION’ REQUIRED

TO SEE TASK THROUGH, SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL TO TALKS IN GERMANY

Following is the statement of Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered by the Special Representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, to the 2002 Bonn talks on Afghanistan in Petersberg, Germany, on 2 December: