The secretary-general as of today is perceived as a diplomat and political person who has responsibility, this is how he is perceived rather than as a manager. And proper tribute is paid to him for the work he does on the political and diplomatic fronts.

You cannot give all the powers to the secretary general. The General Assembly has to keep its main prerogative, and the secretary general and all bodies should be accountable to the General Assembly.

On management reform, you have one side basically saying that the secretary general should be empowered and should have all flexibility as a kind of C.E.O. and the other side saying that it is not ready to give up the prerogative of the General Assembly and would like to keep a close eye on the work of the secretary general.

People were very cautious, to say the least, because of his reputation as a tough guy who didn't like the UN.

What we need from these Europeans is to put an end to these networks, ... We accept any mission whose objective is to exchange views with Algerians in order to strengthen the fight against terrorism.

In the past five years, Kofi Annan focused on Africa because the Africans had the impression the United Nations was not doing enough for them,