New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned Wednesday the suicide bombing attacks on a government provincial office in Kandahar which killed at least two people and injured a large number of others, including a UN employee.

"Such attacks indiscriminately targeting people and institutions committed to building a better future for the country are morally repugnant and can only set back the efforts to foster peace, reconciliation and stability in Afghanistan," Ban said in a statement.

Geneva  - The US administration' announcement that it will seek a seat on the Human Rights Council has been greeted warmly by United Nations officials, who see it much in the light the US has been hoping: A step in the direction towards global engagement.

"I warmly welcome the engagement of UN member States to contribute to the important work which lies ahead of us," said Martin Ihoeghian Uhomoibhi, the president of the council in Geneva.

New York  - Sudan on Tuesday agreed to let the joint United Nations-African Union peacekeeping force in Darfur take over the assets of 13 expelled international relief groups.

The decision was reached between the UN, the Sudanese government and AU representatives in El Fasher, Darfur, where the peacekeeping force is headquartered.

The three sides met to review progress in the deployment of the UN-AU force in Darfur, which is currently at 67 per cent of the authorized ceiling of 30,000 military and civilian personnel.

New York  - The UN General Assembly approved on Tuesday New Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark as the new administrator of the UN Development Programme.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon nominated Clark last week to replace outgoing UNDP head Kemal Dervis of Turkey.

"Helen Clark was selected, amongst a group of excellent candidates, for her outstanding qualifications and numerous accomplishments in her long career," said UN spokeswoman Michele Montas in an official statement.

Jerusalem - Nearly 70 per cent of Palestinian young adults believe the use of violence to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not very helpful, according to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study released Tuesday.

Only 8 per cent believe violence is an important tool, the study, based on interviews with 1,200 Palestinians over the age of 17 in the West Bank and Gaza.

The study also found out that more than 80 per cent of young Palestinians are depressed, and 47 per cent identify themselves as Muslim rather than Palestinian.

New York - The United Nations programme fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria urged governments on Tuesday to replenish its coffer to make up a shortfall of 4 billion dollars for the 2008- 2010 assistance to victims of the epidemic.

The UNAIDS programme needed 13.5 billion dollars for the three- year period, but so far has only 9.9 billion dollars, which it attributed to the current economic crisis affecting the biggest donors to the global fight against HIV/AIDS.