New York - Saying US markets have lost some legitimacy as the world pace setter, the head of a new UN panel on the world financial crisis called for a broadened global finance summit after the G-20 leaders meet in Washington in mid November to resolve the economic meltdown.

"The hope is that it will begin a process, set the agenda and it needs to be a multilateral approach in which the voices of all the countries are heard," said Joseph Stiglitz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics in 2001.

Damascus - European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Syria late Wednesday, where he was received by the Syrian assistant foreign minister at Damascus airport.

Upon arrival, Solana said that his visit to Syria is a follow up to what has been achieved in the Syrian-European relations. He also expressed his satisfaction with the indirect negotiations between Syria and Israel.

New York - The final count is in.

More than 116 million people demonstrated around the world last weekend in a renewed effort to fight poverty, the United Nations said Wednesday.

The Guiness World Records certified the figures provided by anti-poverty campaigners who organized the events in 131 countries Friday through Sunday.

The demonstration was prompted by growing concern that poverty is being aggravated by continued high food prices.

NATO ships have arrived off the Somali coast to begin escorting relief convoys for Somalia, which has lost critical food supplies from the World Food Programme (WFP) to pirates in the past year, the UN said Wednesday.

WFP, backed by the Somali government, requested military vessel escorts to thwart future hijacking of cargo ships carrying food and medicine supplies for Somalia.

The UN Security Council earlier this month authorized use of force by UN members to fight the wave of piracy and armed robbery endangering cargo ships as well as luxury cruise ships plying the waters off Somalia.

New York - The United Nations reported Wednesday that the calm brokered by Egypt was holding in the last month in Gaza Strip and southern Israel despite some incidents, including a rocket fired into the Negev this week.

B. Lynn Pascoe, the UN undersecretary general for political affairs, said in a monthly report to the UN Security Council that Israel closed border crossings between Gaza and Israel in retaliation for the rocket attack on Tuesday.

The number of truckloads of imported goods allowed into Gaza decreased in the last month and the number of people allowed into Israel for medical treatment fell by 38 per cent.