Geneva - The United Nations announced Friday that it was taking the first steps towards a large renovation plan for its historic office in Geneva, which would include large energy-saving measures.

The oldest part of the complex, known as the Palais des Nations, was the original home of the League of Nations, the forerunner of the current United Nations, and is 80 years old.

Electric and water lines as well as windows and other parts of the building were in dire needs of replacement or repairs, said Sergei Ondzhonikidze, the director of the UN Geneva office.

"The materials originally used were not durable and are disintegrating. This causes excessive fuel and electricity conception," he said, adding that this was taxing both monetarily and environmentally.

The renovations would be "an initial investment to save costs and lower our carbon footprint considerably," he told reporters.

Michael Adlerstein, in charge of the ongoing renovations at the UN's main headquarters in New York, said the historical importance of the building would be maintained throughout the renovation process and the offices would continue to function while the work went on.

"It's like restoring a train while in motion," Adlerstein said.

The renovations would also include upgrading security at the complex.

The renovations in New York were estimated to be completed in 2013 at a cost of about 1.87 billion dollars.

"In New York, we will achieve a 44 per cent reduction in energy consumption at the completion of the project. Similar results may be achieved in Geneva," Adlerstein added.

The plan, as announced Friday, will start with an initial study, funded by Switzerland, to see what exactly needed to be done. Based on that research and other studies the UN would eventually announce the full scope of the project and begin to raise the funds to carry out the work.

Actual work on the building would not start until the NY project was complete.

Member states of the UN would be heavily involved in the process and would have to approve all costs, Ondzhonikidze said.

The League of Nations, dismantled fully following World War II, had at its peak in the 1930s 58 members, though this number dropped as Europe changed in the later part of that decade and the early 1940s. The UN, which came into existence in 1945, currently boasts 192 member states. (dpa)