Venezuela had met its development goals and was at the forefront of erasing inequality and extreme poverty, thanks to promotion of an alternative development model, Jorge Valero Briceño, Venezuela’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said this afternoon during a Headquarters news conference. “Under the leadership of President Hugo Chávez Frías, Venezuela has met most of the Millennium Development Goals,” he said.

This afternoon, the Secretary-General will host a meeting of the diplomatic Quartet on the Middle East peace process, which brings together the United Nations, the European Union, the Russian Federation and the United States. The Quartet meeting is intended to support the current direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

With the very fabric of nature being torn apart at an alarming rate, urgent action, smartly allocated funds and a common vision for the long-term future were required to preserve the world’s precious, often irreplaceable, biological systems, experts from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) said at a Headquarters press conference today.

At a Headquarters press conference today, members of the secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity introduced an honorary ambassador to correspondents and announced the winners of the Midori Prize for Biodiversity.

Nigeria’s underdeveloped infrastructure provided a prime opportunity for investment, according to the country’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Henry Odein Ajumogobia. “Nigeria is stable,” Mr. Ajumogobia said at a Headquarters press conference today. “We have come through a difficult period at the end of last year, but the new President has with a steady hand brought peace and security to many parts of the Niger Delta, which was an area that had created concern.”

Bolivian President Evo Morales Ayma, speaking at a Headquarters press conference today, said the world had an “obligation” to use international forums, round tables and debates to reach a common understanding on economic, social, cultural and environmental issues.

At a Headquarters press conference today convened by the Global Compact Office, a panel representing Governments, the United Nations system and the private sector discussed the role of Governments and business in catalysing actions in support of the Millennium Development Goals.

The Secretary-General has appointed a panel to monitor the upcoming self-determination referenda for Southern Sudan and the Abyei Area, headed by former President of the United Republic of Tanzania Mr. Benjamin Mkapa.

The political commitment to achieve better conditions for women must be backed by a financial commitment from United Nations Member States, including generating the minimum start-up budget of $500 million to get the world body’s new unified gender entity — “UN Women” — up and running by January 2011, the agency’s newly appointed chief said today.

The actor Edward Norton, United Nations Goodwill Ambassador for Biodiversity, joined two leading authorities in the field of biodiversity at a Headquarters press conference today to warn of the dangers faced by the planet if States failed to confront the loss of biodiversity, less than a month before an international conference on the issue in Nagoya, Japan.