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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

** East/West Timor

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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Sorry for the delay.

**FYROM

We have a statement here attributable to the Spokesman, concerning the events in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:

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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Security Council

The Security Council is meeting in closed consultations this morning.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY FOREIGN MINISTER OF GREECE

The world had already seen proof that the Olympic Truce was a workable idea and not simply a theoretical concept, George Papandreou, Foreign Minister of Greece, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY LIBERIA’S FOREIGN MINISTER

Liberia’s Foreign Minister yesterday protested the imposition of Security Council sanctions on his country, saying at a Headquarters press conference that his country had been “indicted on secret evidence”.

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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

Good afternoon.

**Secretary-General to Washington

PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL'S SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR KOSOVO

A Security Council mission is to visit Kosovo in the near future, Hans Haekkerup, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and head of the United Nations Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), said at a Headquarters briefing this afternoon.

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 Fred Eckhard, Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

I apologize to you for the delay.  I was getting last minute guidance.

**Noon Guest

PRESS BRIEFING BY CARLA DEL PONTE, PROSECUTOR

FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL TRIBUNALS

A total of 38 people accused of committing war crimes in the former Yugoslavia remained at large, 12 of them living in Serbia and the rest in the Republika Srpska, Carla del Ponte, Prosecutor for the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, said at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS BRIEFING BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR INTERNALLY DISPLACED PERSONS

Afghanistan was living through the fastest growing displacement crisis in the world today, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Internally Displaced Persons told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.