September 8, 2000
The UN summit closes today after the assembled world leaders pledging to uphold the prominence of the world organisation and enhance its peacekeeping activities.
In an address to the Security Council, however, Secretary General of the UN, Mr Kofi Annan, admitted the organisation faced a crisis of credibility.
"Too many vulnerable communities in too many regions of the world now hesitate to look to the United Nations to assist them in their hour of need," he said.
More than 150 leaders backed measures yesterday to give the world body more clout to redeem setbacks in containing regional conflicts and preventing massacres.
Heads of the five permanent members of the Security Council staged a summit within a summit, pledging to inject new vigour into peacekeeping operations as sought by Mr Annan. This would involve altering the scale of payments in view of changed circumstances. Some leaders were more upbeat about progress, however.
"This summit has amounted to a new threshold not only for the United Nations but also for international relations in general," Russian President Vladimir Putin said.
The closing day was to be marked by the final addresses of leaders assessing the UN's role in the next millennium, as well as a long list of bilateral meetings.
However, the summit will end conceding there was little ground for hope of forging an accord on Middle East peace.
Although US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and President Bill Clinton were available as mediators, time was running out in the peace process as a September 13th deadline loomed for an Israel-Palestinian accord.
Mr Clinton made little progress in narrowing differences in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
Some encounters at the summit were ground-breaking, notably a two-minute chance meeting between Mr Clinton and Cuban President Fidel Castro, during which they shook hands. But US officials said Washington's policy of opposition to Castro's 40-year-old rule had undergone no modification.
Mr Annan was also presented with a petition signed by 21 million people from 155 countries calling for a cancellation of debts owed by the world's poorest countries by President Obsanjano of Nigeria and pop star Bono of U2.
