UNITED NATIONS, Nov 9 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will urge world leaders Saturday not to allow the war on terrorism to divert them from the fight against poverty, AIDS and environmental degradation, his office said.
In a speech opening the seven-day general debate of the United Nations General Assembly, Annan will reiterate "four burning issues" as priorities for his second five-year term, which begins January 1.
At least 43 heads of state and government and 115 foreign ministers are due to speak in the debate, which is being held amid unprecedented security ordered after the destruction of New York's twin World Trade Center towers on September 11.
"We share in the pain and grief of our host country and our host city," Annan began in a speech distributed in advance to reporters. "Like them, we are determined to overcome the forces that inflicted this ordeal on us."
But, he said, it would "give the terrorists a kind of victory" if the world body and its member states focused all their energies on fighting terror.
"None of the issues that faced us on September 10 has become less urgent," he added.
Recalling the ambitious goals of the millennium summit at the start of last year's general debate, he said his first priority was to eradicate extreme poverty.
The summit resolved to halve, by the year 2015, the proportion of people in the world who live on less than one dollar a day, who suffer from hunger and who are unable to reach or afford safe drinking water.
"Much must be done by the developing countries," Annan will tell this year's debate, "but to reach the point where they can really benefit from market opportunities, they need generous help from developed countries."
He said he would "do my utmost to make sure this fundamental issue is addressed."
Flows of official development aid to the Third World shrunk from 0.34 percent of the GNP of the richest nations in 1990 to 0.24 percent by the end of the decade, while contributions per head of population among donor countries fell from 77 dollars to 66 dollars.
Annan will reiterate that his second priority is to intensify the struggle against HIV/AIDS, which has already killed 22 million people and infected 35 million others.
The millennium summit pledged to halt and begin to reverse the spread of the pandemic by 2015 and set up a global fund which Annan says will require 9.2 billion dollars by 2005.
"To have any hope of redeeming that pledge, we must all make it a genuine priority for years to come," he said.
Annan said he would also "maintain and strengthen the focus of our work on preventing deadly conflict," notably by attacking its root causes.
His fourth priority was to help save future generations from an environmentally degraded planet, he said.
"The common thread running through all these issues is the need to respect fundamental human rights, and Africa is the region where all of them present the greatest challenge," he added.
He will urge world leaders to do all they can to ensure the success of two UN conferences next year: the Conference on Financing for Development, to be held in Monterrey, Mexico, in March, and the Summit on Sustainable Development, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in September.
Annan, who was appointed on June 29 to a second term in office, six months ahead of schedule, will conclude his speech by appealing to member states to keep the UN on firm financial footing.
The organisation recently said that for the first time in many years it was able to balance the books on its peacekeeping account, thanks to the payment of massive arrears by the United States.
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