New York - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday welcomed Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir's announcement of an immediate ceasefire in the troubled western region of Darfur.

Al-Bashir said the fighting should stop between the government's armed forces and warring factions and called for an effective monitoring mechanism to monitor the ceasefire. He also called for the disarming of militia forces.

New York - Israeli President Shimon Peres said Wednesday his government agrees with a Saudi peace proposal to settle the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.

Peres told the UN General Assembly that Israel agrees with the Arab call that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be solved through military means and that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is "the strategic option of the Arab countries."

"This is Israel's strategy as well," Peres said in a UN debate on religion and peace.

"These expression in the Arab peace initiative are inspirational and promising - a serious opening for real progress," he said.

New York - The UN General Assembly on Wednesday opened a two-day conference on religion and peace, with its president launching yet another attack against rich countries for morally bankrupting the rest of the world.

Kings, presidents and delegations from 70 countries attended the debate on how to use the values of religions and cultures to bridge misunderstandings, mostly between east and west, in order to help solve political and armed conflicts.

New York, Nov. 12, 2008 -- The UAE Tuesday presented US$668,000 to the UN in support of the latter's development activities and programmes for the year 2009.

United Nations, Nov 12 : Pakistan has reportedly told the United Nations that it had suffered “the most” from the direct consequences of decades of conflict and instability in Afghanistan.

He said a large number of Afghan refugees, including Al Qaeda and the Taliban, were staying in Pakistan after illegally crossing from across the Afghan border.

New York  - The United Nations Security Council continues to contemplate additional forces for a peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where civilians are increasingly bearing the brunt of fighting between government troops and rebels.

In a closed-door meeting late Tuesday in New York, UN peacekeeping chief Alain Le Roy briefed the 15-country Security Council on the situation in the eastern DR Congo, where government troops in full retreat have reportedly resorted to looting and other abuses against civilians.