11 November 2004	Thursday	27 Ramazan 1425

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 10: Pakistan has expressed the hope that the UN Summit meeting to be held in the Fall of 2005 would serve to strengthen and unite the United Nations, reflecting the aspirations of the entire membership, rather than those of just the selected few and the powerful.

Addressing the preparatory meeting of the UN General Assembly Wednesday, convened by the President of the UN General Assembly to discuss the modalities, format and organization of the 2005 Summit, the Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, said that it would not be sufficient for the summit to adopt a broad declaratory agenda, but in fact there was a need to have concrete decisions on issues of vital interest to the larger UN membership.

Ambassador Akram proposed that the preparatory process should be guided by three Cs: caution, comprehensiveness, and consensus. He said "we should move with caution" so that the process was not led by the ambitions of a few states rather than the collective interests of the United Nations; pursue a comprehensive approach to evolve an integrated package of decisions, and take decisions by consensus in order to evolve united United-Nations.

The 2005 Summit, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, will be an event of decisive importance, which would review the implementation of the Millennium Declaration. It will be an opportunity to build on the vision of the world leaders agreed four years ago in the Millennium Declaration for building a better and safer world for the 21st century.-APP