PRESS BRIEFING BY SECRETARY-GENERAL’S SPECIAL ENVOY FOR SUDAN

Recent peace talks in Naivasha, the Sudan, had been a major breakthrough for the people of the country and for regional stabilization in that part of the world, Ambassador Tom Eric Vraalsen, Special Envoy of the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Needs for the Sudan, told correspondents at a Headquarters press briefing today.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY RIO GROUP

Rio Group countries needed new financial mechanisms to increase public and private investment in the short term, especially for public works, Peruvian Foreign Minister Allan Tizon told correspondents at Headquarters today.

Joined by the two other members of the Rio Group Troika, Foreign Ministers Roberto Faja of Costa Rica and Celso Amorin of Brazil, Mr. Tizon said such investment was also needed for education, health and housing.

PRESS BRIEFING ON UN CONVENTION AGAINST TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME

The 2000 United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime -– the first legally binding treaty of its kind -- would enter into force on Monday, 29 September, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, announced at a Headquarters press briefing this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF CYPRUS

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRIME MINISTER OF MALAYSIA

The United Nations must be democratized by a modified right of veto in the Security Council that would require negative votes by two permanent members and three rotating members to block a resolution, Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said this afternoon at a Headquarters press conference.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES

Commonwealth countries will do all they can to reinvigorate the Doha process in the wake of the breakdown of trade talks in Cancún, Mexico, Commonwealth officials told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF PAKISTAN

Citizens of Pakistan were empowered and living in a real democracy, General Pervez Musharraf, President of Pakistan, told correspondents at a Headquarters press conference this afternoon.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT JACQUES CHIRAC OF FRANCE

While the current governmental institutions in Iraq were not in a position to shoulder full sovereignty, a process of handing over responsibility could begin on the basis of a clear political statement, and develop progressively at a rate consonant with developments in the country Iraq, French President Jacques Chirac said at a Headquarters press conference today.

PRESS CONFERENCE BY CANADIAN PRIME MINISTER

PRESS BRIEFING BY WHO, UNAIDS, GLOBAL FUND TO FIGHT AIDS