The UN General Assembly reached a much-delayed agreement on a UN reform plan that will be submitted to world leaders at their upcoming summit, the outgoing chairman of the General Assembly, Gabon's Jean Ping, announced.
The historic accord came on Tuesday at a plenary session of the outgoing 59th General Assembly, on the eve of the world's largest summit, which is to endorse a much scaled-down version of UN chief Kofi Annan's blueprint to reform the United Nations on its 60th anniversary.
"May I take it that the General Assembly decides to adopt the draft resolution," Ping said with Annan at his side. "It is so decided."
"The adoption of this outcome document is a tremendous achievement," Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry said on behalf of the European Union.
Parry congratulated Ping and Annan and called the deal "a tribute to all the work that has gone in from the huge number of delegations."
"It means that the summit can start on a correct basis," he added. "For us the challenge will be in the 60th (General Assembly) session to actually maintain the progress of what has been agreed today," the British envoy said.
{{/usCountry}}"It means that the summit can start on a correct basis," he added. "For us the challenge will be in the 60th (General Assembly) session to actually maintain the progress of what has been agreed today," the British envoy said.
{{/usCountry}}But Cuba's UN delegate Abelardo Moreno raised objections about what he called "distortions" added to the text.
"First of all we are of the view that the negotiating process that is taking place was one characterized by a lack of transparency and sensitivity," he said.