UNITED NATIONS, (AFP) - Hailed as "a global citizen", Kofi Annan took the oath of office of UN Secretary General for the second time Friday, saying he hoped in his new term to make individuals feel closer to the organisation. (Read photo caption below).
"Only if their confidence in the United Nations has been strengthened will your confidence in me have been justified," he told the UN General Assembly after it had approved his re-appointment for five years by acclamation.
Annan, the seventh secretary general since the founding of the UN in 1945, said in a brief speech of acceptance that his first term had been "a time of sweeping change and great challenges".
Delegates applauded as the Assembly president, Harri Holkeri, asked them to endorse the unanimous recommendation of the Security Council to renew Annan's mandate six months before it expires on December 31. His second term will start on January 1, 2002.
Proposing Annan's reappointment, the council president, Anwarul Chowdhury of Bangladesh told the Assembly: "He has excelled in his office."
Annan had introduced reforms to make the UN more relevant for today's world, he had developed its partnership with civil society and the private sector, and he had made its peacekeeping operations more effective, Chowdhury said.
Pledging the support of the United States for Annan in his second term, the acting US ambassador to the UN, James Cunningham, described him as "a global citizen who gives voice to all the people of our United Nations."
In his speech, Annan singled out one task facing the world body, the fight against HIV/AIDS, which has killed 22 million people and infected another 36 million.
"I have made that issue a personal priority, and I am now convinced that the battle can be won," he said.
On Wednesday, the Assembly ended a historic three-day special session by adopting a wide-ranging declaration setting out targets for halting and reversing the spread of the epidemic, and a timetable for achieving them.
The session had illustrated "the compassion, innovation and determination which the secretary general brings to the job," Cunningham said.
"Kofi Annan often says he must be part secretary, part general; in the war on AIDS he has become our general," Cunningham went on.
"He has marshalled an unprecedented private/public coalition, he has broken false taboos that threaten millions of lives, he has persuaded the powerful and he has comforted the dying."
Annan told the Assembly that it faced other challenges, spelt out by heads of state and government at the Millennium Summit in September.
The goals include halving the proportion of people in abject poverty, those on less than one dollar a day, achieving universal primary education, and improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers, all by 2015.
Annan said he would submit "a programme for carrying out those orders, over the next five years," to the new General Assembly in September.
He said he hoped "that five years from now the peoples of the world -- whom this Organisation was founded to serve -- will feel that it is closer to them, working better to fulfill their needs, and putting their individual welfare at the centre of everything it does."
Annan said that during his first term, he had tried to "speak out in defence of those who cannot speak for themselves -- for the right of the poorest to development, and the right of the weakest and most vulnerable to protection."
He had also tried to make human rights "the touchstone of my work, in all their aspects, because I believe they belong to every faith, every culture, and every people," he said.
He paid tribute to the staff of the UN and its agencies.
"In peacekeeping operations, in refugee camps, and in countless other missions of mercy and hope, their dedication to the service of mankind is constant and unswerving," he said.
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PHOTO CAPTION

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan addresses the General Assembly after he was elected to another five-year term as head of the organization, Friday June 29, 2001. The re-election of the 63-year-old Ghanaian will give Africa an unprecedented 15 years at the helm of the world body. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
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