Press Release

                                                            PAL/1972*

ANTI-POVERTY GOALS CANNOT BE MET WITHOUT TRUE GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT PARTNERSHIP,

SAYS SECRETARY-GENERAL IN MESSAGE TO MARRAKESH CONFERENCE

Following is Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message to the High-Level Conference on South-South Cooperation in Marrakesh, 16 December:

UN ICT TASK FORCE PROPOSED AS FORUM FOR DISCUSSING INTERNET GOVERNANCE

(Received from a UN Information Officer.)

GENEVA, 12 December -- Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, the Vice-Chairman of the United Nations Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force, today told the closing meeting of the World Summit on the Information Society that the Task Force should host the debate on Internet governance.

GLOBAL INFORMATION SOCIETY SUMMIT SPURS SOLIDARITY,

ALLIANCES BUT HARD WORK, ACTION AHEAD

GENEVA, 12 December 2003 (ITU) -- The World Summit on the Information Society closed on an optimistic note of consensus and commitment, but Yoshio Utsumi, Secretary-General of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and Summit cautioned that the meeting was only the start of a long and complex process.

GOVERNING COUNCIL OF UNITED NATIONS COMPENSATION COMMISSION

TO HOLD FIFTIETH SESSION FROM 16 TO 18 DECEMBER

(Reissued as received.)

GENEVA, 12 December -- The Governing Council of the United Nations Compensation Commission will hold its fiftieth session from 16 to 18 December 2003 under the Presidency of Ambassador Michael Steiner (Germany).

Secretary-General Kofi Annan arrived in Geneva on Monday morning, 8 December.

Security Council

4880^th Meeting (PM)

SECURITY COUNCIL, IN PRESIDENTIAL STATEMENT, EXPRESSES SUPPORT FOR ‘STANDARDS

FOR KOSOVO’, WELCOMES LAUNCH OF REVIEW MECHANISM

The Security Council this afternoon expressed support for the “Standards for Kosovo”, presented on 10 December in Pristina, after hearing a briefing yesterday from Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations, Jean-Marie Guéhenno.

MILAN CONFERENCE CONCLUDES AS MINISTERS CALL FOR URGENT,

COORDINATED ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE

(Reissued as received.)

TOP SOUTH-EAST EUROPEAN OFFICIALS MEET TO DISCUSS LAW

ENFORCEMENT AND ANTI-TRAFFICKING STRATEGIES

(Reissued as received.)

Fifty-eighth General Assembly

Second Committee

38^th Meeting (PM)

SECOND COMMITTEE APPROVES DRAFT RESOLUTION STRESSING NEED

FOR SPEEDY RESUMPTION, CONCLUSION OF DOHA WORK PROGRAMME