UN chief to meet US president

United Nations, Jan 13 (UNI) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who assumed the top post at the world body earlier this month, will visit Washington next week to meet President George W Bush.

''I can confirm that the visit will take place next Tuesday, the 16th of January. In addition to meeting with the president, the Secretary-General will also meet with leaders of the US Congress,'' UN Chief's Spokesman Michele Montas, told reporters yesterday.

This will be the first trip of the new UN chief outside New York City. Mr Ban assumed the UN leadership on January 1, succeeding Kofi Annan of Ghana.

On Thursday, Mr Ban told a news conference that President Bush had invited him to Washington as head of the government playing host to UN headquarters. He said his job expected from him to serve the interests of the United Nations. He denied favoring the United States or any particular nation.

It had been widely reported in the run-up to the UN chief's election that the United States strongly favored Mr Ban.

Mr Ban's second official trip will be to Africa over the month-end, which includes the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa.

At the summit, he is likely to focus on stability in Somalia and reinforce the peacekeeping mission in Sudan's Darfur region.

He is also scheduled to go to the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has the biggest peacekeeping mission, and UN offices in Nairobi.

Prior to his Africa visit, the UN chief will go to Paris in his bid to rebuild Lebanon after last year's 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah.

UNI