08 February 2004	Sunday	16 Zilhaj 1424

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 7: Pakistan's Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Maleeha Lodhi, who was in New York to attend a meeting of the United Nations advisory board on disarmament was asked to continue to serve on the board for another three years.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Friday asked Ms Lodhi to continue to work on the board.

UN Secretary General said: "Dire potential scenarios involving nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have dominated recent disarmament discussions."

But a much more direct threat to many people around the world is the day-to-day violence of conflict fought with small weapons, which are supplied - sometimes legally, sometimes illegally - by often unscrupulous and predatory arms merchants," he noted.

Noting that the first article of the United Nations' charter calls for "effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace," he said it was essential to show that the United Nations was capable of fulfilling that purpose, "not just for the most privileged members of the organization, who are currently - and understandably - preoccupied with terrorism and weapons of mass destruction."