Geneva  - The United Nations Human Rights Council deferred voting on a decision about the global economic and financial crisis Friday and instead said it would reconvene the debate on Monday.

The Council spent about six hours in session during the day, hearing from experts, UN agencies, member states and non-governmental organizations.

A proposed draft resolution had called on UN member states to not let the crisis lead to human rights violations, cuts in international aid or putting development goals, especially reducing poverty and hunger, on the back burner.

New York - UN Security Council members said Friday they eventually would have to tackle the new situation with Iran, which has continued its uranium enrichment programme and been found to produce enough fissile material for an atomic bomb.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna said in an updated report that the Tehran regime has underreported by a third the extent of its enrichment activities.

New York  - France and Britain on Friday strongly criticized Myanmar's military regime for failing to implement democratic reform and freeing political prisoners, even though that government has announced the amnesty for 6,000 prisoners.

France's UN Ambassador Jean Maurice Ripert lashed out at Ibrahim Gambari, the special envoy of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, for an unauthorized meeting with Myanmar's junta leader Senior General Than Shwe during his recent visit that country.

New York  - The UN General Assembly president took yet another shot on Thursday at some world powers for what he called disrespect of the United Nations Charter, while intergovernmental negotiations began on reforming the UN Security Council.

Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, a former Sandinista foreign minister in Nicaragua in the 1980s, has been picking on the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain - the so-called P5 veto-wielding permanent members of the 15-nation council - since he became leader of the 192-nation last September.

New York  - United Nations members were to begin on Thursday the first round of inter-governmental negotiations to reform the UN Security Council, which holds authority over issues of peace and security around the world.

The negotiations will be held behind closed doors among government envoys at UN headquarters in New York, marking the first step at reforming the 15-nation council following 16 years of on-and-off discussions.

Last year, members finally agreed that it was time to negotiate seriously.

New York  - With major hostilities having ended in Gaza Strip in the past month, the territory is faced with a renewal of fighting because of the lack of a "proper ceasefire," the UN special coordinator for Middle East peace said Wednesday.

Negotiations have been underway under Egyptian mediation for a permanent ceasefire while Israel has declared several unilateral ceasefires.