With senior political figures gathered at United Nations Headquarters in New York today for an international conference on rebuilding earthquake-shattered Haiti, the Japanese Government announced that it would provide an additional $30 million to the effort and dispatch a team of disaster-prevention experts to the country, according to Kazuo Kodama, Press Secretary in Japan’s Foreign Ministry.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told a Headquarters press conference today at the conclusion of the one-day International Donors’ Conference for Haiti aimed at securing financial resources for the earthquake-stricken country’s recovery that the friends of Haiti had acted far beyond expectations.

The Secretary-General and the other co-chairs of the Donors’ Conference on Haiti spoke to the press yesterday afternoon, and the Secretary-General announced that donors had pledged $5.3 billion for the next two years and $9.9 billion, in total, for the next three years and beyond.

A panel of officials from the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) today hailed the success of the recently-concluded fifth session of the World Urban Forum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where nearly 14,000 participants had gathered to weigh the effects of urbanization and consider actions to curb social inequalities, and boost access to shelter, infrastructure, income and basic services for the world’s city-dwellers.

The Secretary-General arrived in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, earlier today on the latest leg of his week-long visit to Central Asia. He has been holding talks with President Rahmon and other Tajik officials on topics including Afghanistan, human rights, climate change and the question of tensions over water resources in Central Asia.

The Secretary-General takes note of the release of a Nuclear Posture Review by the United States of America, and he welcomes President Obama's reaffirmation of his commitment towards a nuclear-weapon-free world. Following the recent successful conclusion of negotiations between the Russian Federation and the United States for a successor agreement to the Treaty on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, the release of this new Review is a timely initiative in that direction.

Reviews of major peacekeeping and peace-building efforts, as well as a members’ mission to Africa, will be among the most significant activities of the Security Council in April, the permanent representative of Japan said today.

The Economic and Social Council’s focus in 2010 would be on providing substantive input for the September summit on the Millennium Development Goals, the organ’s President said today.

The Secretary-General is shocked by the reported deaths and injuries that have occurred today in Kyrgyzstan. He once again calls on all concerned to show restraint. He urgently appeals for dialogue and calm to avoid further bloodshed. The Secretary-General is following the situation closely.

The Secretary-General welcomes the signing of the new START Treaty as an important milestone in the international efforts to advance nuclear disarmament and to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons. He commends President [Dmitry] Medvedev and President [Barack] Obama for their leadership.