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Annan to visit Sri Lanka

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan's senior aide, Iqbal Riza, assured a Sri Lankan delegation last week that the UN chief will give serious consideration to an invitation to visit Sri Lanka.

The invitation was extended to Annan by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during his meeting with the Secretary-General two weeks ago.

Riza, chef-de-cabinet to Annan, was quoted as saying that the Secretary-General will avail himself of the earliest opportunity to visit Colombo.

Last year, Annan visited several South Asian countries, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal. But he skipped Sri Lanka because he had no formal invitation from the government at that time.

The delegation which paid a courtesy call on Riza included Dr. Karunasena Kodituwakku, Minister of Human Resources Development, Education and Cultural Affairs, Alhaj A.H.M. Azwer, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs and Government Whip and Ambassador C Mahendran, Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the United Nations.

The three delegates were also present at the General Assembly meeting Friday which unanimously decided to admit East Timor (to be formally known as Timor-Leste) as the 191st member of the United Nations.

Later, they also attended the flag-raising ceremony in the UN compound and expressed their best wishes to Xanana Gusmao, president of the world's newest nation state.

Early last week, the two ministers were observers at a meeting of the Security Council which discussed the UN's annual report assessing the work of the world body for the past year.

The ministers also attended a meeting of the UN's Asian Group where Annan presented a report on how he proposes to reform the UN system as part of his plans to restructure the cash-strapped world body. 

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