UNITED NATIONS, Oct 1: Calling for a consensus among member states, the President of the UN General Assembly on Friday announced ‘an ambitious agenda’ to move the organization forward in a number of crucial areas, including peacemaking, development, human rights and management reform.

“I think this is a unique opportunity for the General Assembly to assert itself,” Jan Eliasson of Sweden told a press conference here after making public a letter he had sent to member states setting out follow-up steps on the Outcome Document adopted by the World Summit last month.

“This year,” he said, “the (UN) Assembly is faced with the task of keeping up the momentum of the Millennium Development Goals, setting up a peacemaking commission, setting up a human rights council and having a convention on terrorism. If there was ever an opportunity for revitalization, this is it.”

To comply with deadlines set by the World Summit, Mr Eliasson stressed in his letter to the organization’s 191 members that negotiations on key issues must start immediately.

To help with the tight schedule, he said, he would appoint two co-chairs by Tuesday to prepare for a short period of consultations, followed by more intense negotiations, so that a draft resolution could be presented in time for a peace building commission to be operational by early January.