Recalling the Quartet statement of last week, which reflected the united call of the international community urging Israel to extend the settlement restraint policy, the Secretary-General is disappointed that no such decision has yet been taken and concerned at provocative actions taking place on the ground.

In a bid to avoid the extraction of oil from one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet — Yasuní National Park in Ecuador — and preserve the area’s unique ecology for all humanity, the Ecuadorean Government wanted to raise at least $100 million of a proposed multi-billion dollar trust fund by the end of 2011, Ecuador’s Vice-President, Lenín Moreno Garcés, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference today.

The Security Council heard a briefing this morning from Michael von der Schulenburg, the Secretary-General’s Executive Representative for Sierra Leone. He discussed preparations for the 2012 elections, and also noted the apprehension with which Sierra Leoneans view developments in neighbouring Guinea. Council members also heard an update on Côte d’Ivoire by the Special Representative for the country, Choi Young-jin.

The financial commitments made by Governments, corporations and foundations to development, and the media coverage on such issues during last week’s Millennium Development Goals Summit had surpassed United Nations expectations, Robert C. Orr, Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Planning, said this afternoon during a Headquarters press conference.

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), in its latest report on Afghanistan, says that opium poppy cultivation there remained as last year, but the production of opium was cut by half in 2010. The decrease was largely due to a plant infection hitting the major poppy-crop growing provinces of Helmand and Kandahar particularly hard.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights released a 550-page report today, listing 617 of the most serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law over a 10-year period by both State and non-State actors in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. High Commissioner Navi Pillay says the report “provides the most extensive account to date of the most serious violations committed between 1993 and 2003.

The Security Council’s programme of work for October would include a mission to Uganda and Sudan, as well as two public debates — the first, at the ministerial level, on women and peace and security to mark the tenth anniversary of the first Council resolution on that subject, and the second on the Middle East — Ruhakana Rugunda (Uganda), Council President for the month, said today at Headquarters.

The head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Christiana Figueres, called on Governments today to accelerate their search for common ground, ahead of the Climate Change Conference in Cancún, Mexico. She said that with less than two months left, a concrete outcome in December was urgently needed to restore faith in the ability of States Parties to take the negotiations forward.

The Secretary-General chaired the Third Global Fund Replenishment Conference this morning, telling participants that the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been one of the major success stories of the twenty-first century. He said the programmes supported by the Global Fund have saved an estimated 5.7 million lives.

Pledges from a meeting to replenish the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria would allow millions more lives to be saved in the next three years, but additional funds could do even more, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this afternoon at a headquarters press conference.