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Annan to press

Asian govts on

globalisation

UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan will use a two-week tour of Asia and the Pacific to emphasise the need to involve ordinary men and women in the debate on globalisation, UN officials said.

Annan leaves New York on Tuesday for a tour of six countries including his first visit to East Timor, which has been under United Nations administration since November.

He will also go to Indonesia, where top army brass have been accused of involvement in the mayhem which engulfed East Timor after 78.5 percent of its people voted for independence in a referendum organised by the UN.

Annan is expected to make his most important speech in Bangkok, where the 10th four-yearly United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) begins on February 12.

Khalil Rahman, head of the UNCTAD office in New York, said organisers hoped for "a global town hall meeting" where opinions about globalisation could be aired in a calmer atmosphere than in the World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle in December.

Annan was unable to deliver a prepared speech in Seattle, where police battled demonstrators before the four-day conference collapsed without agreement on a range of trade liberalisation issues such as agricultural export subsidies, labour standards and biotechnology.

Rahman said the lesson to be learned from Seattle was that "we cannot go on doing business solely among governments and UN bureaucracies". He added: "even within a relatively prosperous country it is extremely difficult to address well-entrenched interest groups unless you have an open dialogue, and that is what we are trying to foster."

Annan is expected to reiterate his call for a global compact with big business enshrining nine principles for ethical business practices in the spheres of human rights, labour standards and the enviornment.ÑAFP