ISLAMABAD, Dec 9: Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Masood Khan, has been designated as the president of the sixth review conference of the Biological Weapons Convention (BWC) to be held in December 2006. Mr Khan has also been nominated to chair the preparatory committee of the review conference.

The decision was taken by BWC’s 155 member states at the conclusion of their annual meeting which discussed codes of conduct for scientists to promote peaceful use of biological sciences and stem their potential misuse for weapon production and proliferation.

Ambassador Hsu King Bee of Malaysia, on behalf of the Non-Aligned Movement, nominated Ambassador Khan.

According to a dispatch from Pakistan’s permanent mission in Geneva on Friday, Mr Khan, while accepting the nomination, said: “In view of the new developments, we need to evolve responses that would help us stem proliferation and review measures for an effective implementation of all articles of the treaty.”

Australia, on behalf of the Western Group, and Norway, on behalf of the Eastern Group, assured Ambassador Khan of their cooperation to ensure a successful outcome of the review conference.

Earlier, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a message to the BWC conference, called on member states to reaffirm the ban on such weapons and address their possible use by terrorists.