UN millenium assembly meeting concludes in Beirut

A two-day session to prepare for the United Nations Millennium Assembly and Millennium Summit, organized by the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), concluded Monday in Beirut, Lebanon at the United Nations House.

The session -- in which more than 70 Arab non-governmental organization members, academics, and media members participated -- addressed topic such as good government, human rights, and United Nations reform to increase the UN's effectiveness.

ESCWA Executive Secretary Hazem El-Beblawi said the meeting was a chance for discussion of regional problems in a setting related to the United Nations by civil society, saying, "Our region is probably the only one in the world where peace and security have been constant problems."

"It was Secretary-General Annan's idea that we go out to the regions to hear authentic voices, grass-roots opinions, on how to change the United Nations for the better," United Nations Assistant Secretary-General Miles Stoby said.

Stoby said the meeting had shortcomings, "We would have liked to have included more women and youth," but he added that there was no expression of hopelessness among the participants.

The Beirut meeting was the first of several such regional meetings in Africa, Europe, Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean.