UNITED NATIONS, Jan 12: The United Nations announced on Tuesday that it would hold a special General Assembly session this month to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camps,

Secretary General Kofi Annan said a majority of the member states had agreed to the request to convene the special session on January 24, and he called on all countries to give the session their full support.

Dan Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador, was quoted as saying that he was especially gratified that several Arab and Muslim nations, including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Oman and Morocco, were among the 111 that had supported the session. He said that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and some others had still not responded, but that the deadline was not until Thursday.

Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary general, said the United Nations had never held such a high-level remembrance of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews and millions of others, including Poles, Soviet citizens, gays and Gypsies, were killed or held in Nazi labour camps.

The announcement came after a majority of the UNâ€(tm)s 191 members responded favourably to a poll in a letter from Mr Annan. The original request for the special session was made by the United States, Russia, the European Union, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.