24/6/2005
Annan Calls For Broad Burden-Sharing In Iraq

At the one day international conference on Iraq this week, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the international community to share more broadly the burden of the reconstruction and stabilisation of the country.

"[Iraqis] look to this conference for a clear sign that the international community will be their determined and dedicated companions on the tough road that they must walk to achieve a stable, peaceful, democratic Iraq," Mr. Annan told the one-day conference in Brussels which was co-hosted by the European Union and the United States.

He said that the large and diverse Iraqi delegation had put a comprehensive vision of the future before the conference, and he praised the people of Iraq for their hard-won political progress. Iraq's newly elected authorities now bear the burden of leading their country successfully through the next steps of the transition, he stressed, including the important drafting of a new, inclusive constitution.

Reaffirming the UN's commitment to Iraq, Mr Annan said that while he remained mindful of the security situation in Iraq, he pledged to the people of Iraq that the United Nations was determined to respond to their expectations and to accompany them all the way on their historic
journey of transition.

Later Mr. Annan met the Prime Minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, and the Belgian Foreign Minister Karel de Gucht, to discuss the possibility of Belgian assistance in the constitutional drafting process, as well as UN reform and the current situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). He also discussed the continuing dialogue on nuclear issues between Iran and the governments of Britain, France and Germany, with Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi, and Uzbekistan with Dr Condoleezza Rice, the United States Secretary of State.