SG: I know you are all very keen to hear what I feel about the game. First of all, let me say, “Don't cry for Ghana”. This was just a coming out party, and I think tomorrow will be a different story. And tomorrow will be in 2010, in South Africa, on African soil.

Q: You are going upstairs to meet the Iranian Foreign Minister. When you met him last week, you came away with the impression that the Iranians were not going to give an answer until some time in mid or late August. Are you going to do anything to try and perhaps persuade the Iranians to give an answer sooner, because of pressure from the Americans, the Europeans?

SG: I will discuss the nuclear issue with them. But let me refresh your memory on what I said in Geneva. I indicated after my discussions with the Foreign Minister that I was under the impression I did not think they will give their answer before the G8 summit. I didn't go as far as to say mid-August, and I hope it is still possible for them to give an answer before mid-August, but I will pursue that with the Minister.

Q: What other issues are you planning to pursue with the Minister?

SG: Obviously, we will discuss the nuclear issue, and the situation in the Middle East –in the broader Middle East generally. I think they are an important player in the region. They know and understand what is going on there, and they are a player, and I would want to discuss that whole region with them.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General. On Darfur, and Sudan. What is your feeling now, now that, they are still saying “no”, Mr. [Jean-Marie] Guéhenno's briefing - should the UN sort of back off until the African Union Summit, or should there be some step between now and then, by the Security Council, or by yourself, or whatever, to put pressure on them to turn around their answer?

SG: The African Union summit is really this weekend, and I will be there. On the 1st. I will be there myself, and hopefully with the other African leaders we will be able to engage the President of Sudan. I have agreed to meet with him there. But there are other African leaders who are also anxious to talk to him about this, and I hope the collective pressure will make a difference. But I also appeal to the [Security] Council to bring their collective and individual pressure to bear, pressure to bear not just on the Sudanese Government to cooperate and support the deployment, but also on the rebels that are outside the agreement to sign the agreement, and pressure both parties to implement in good faith what they have agreed to do in Abuja. And of course, there are other issues - like strengthening the African Union force on the ground, strengthening our humanitarian activities - while we press ahead with the preparation for the transition from the African Union to the UN. And of course I hope that the discussions in [Banjul] will be helpful, and that we will see an opening on the side of the Sudanese. So far the answer has not been positive, but the dialogue continues.

Q: If the Sudanese Government insists, as it seems, about refusing peacekeepers, what are the options available?

SG: I think we will jump that bridge when we get there. But for the time being we are pressing them to let us go in and do what needs to be done. And besides we have to remember that it is the African Union itself that has taken a decision that they want to transition to the UN, and they do not want to go beyond December of this year. And so to say that the African Union should continue, when they have indicated that they will have reached their limit by December, is not a very helpful suggestion.

Q: On Somalia –the man who is now the leader of the Islamic Courts Union is on a UN-al Qaeda terror list. Is this someone the international community should deal with? Who should the West be negotiating with, as you try to get aid and others in there? What is the future for Somalia politically now?

SG: I think the Transitional Government, which the UN has recognized, is in discussion with the leaders of the Islamic Court. They know the international scene reasonably well –I mean the Transitional Government - they know what is required of them. I don't know what will be the outcome of their discussion and what the leadership structure for the immediate future will look like once they have concluded their discussions. And so I would want us to keep the door open to see what the Somalis agree, and how they organize themselves to move forward, and then the international community will have to determine how we engage them. But I don't think it is necessarily clear who is going to lead Somalia from next month or so. Discussions are still going on.

Q: The Inter Parliamentary Union –legislators from 34 countries have written to you about Myanmar. Have you received that letter?

SG: I haven't seen it yet. But go ahead

Q: They have written asking you to intervene in the case of [Aung San] Suu Kyi also asking you to ask the Security Council to take some sort of action. Do you have any next plan for Myanmar, as yet?

SG: I think in terms of intervening, on behalf of Aung San Suu Kyi, I think we have never disengaged. I just sent in Mr. [Ibrahim Gambari] lately, and I am also in touch with other leaders in the region to use their influence and to bring to bear their pressure, their own influence on the Myanmar Government to cooperate with us.

On the question of Security Council action, several members of the Security Council are seized with that and they are discussing that among themselves and I will wait to see how the Council decides to go.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, on Sudan, are you going to discuss a mandate with President [Omar al-] Bashir? Because that seems to be part of the problem, that the UN should have even a weaker mandate than the AU.

SG: I think, if we are going to make a difference, we need a much stronger force on the ground, and a clear mandate. We would also need a force, as I have had an opportunity to share with you earlier, a force that is mobile –mobile in the air and on the ground, and would be able to respond to crisis calls or SOS and be on the ground to make a difference before it is too late. In the discussions [that] Mr. Jean-Marie Guéhenno and [Said] Djinnit of the African Union had with the Sudanese authorities, they did give them an idea of what it is that we would like to do on the ground, but of course they cannot discuss definitively the mandate until the Security Council has approved it. But we were able to give them a clear idea of how we intend to proceed, and then I will come back.

Q: We can speak about the mandate, and what we want to do, and about your forthcoming meeting with the President, but when the President stands out in front of the Sudanese Parliament, and he says that, as long as he is President of Sudan, there will never be United Nations forces - where do we go from here, in the face of such statements?

SG: In politics, words like “never” and “forever” do not exist. We have seen leaders say lots of things, but they also find reasons and ways to adapt, to shift, to change direction, and often forget that they have used the word “never”.

Q: On the developments on the Palestinian-Israeli front there –as you know there has been an agreement among the Palestinians due to the national dialogue that they have over the document, the prisoners' document. How important is this, from your point of view, how long ago did you speak to the President of the Palestinian Authority, and how concerned are you, actually?

SG: You must have an inner track?[laughs]

I spoke to him after lunch. I spoke to President [Mahmoud] Abbas after lunch, where we discussed the situation on the ground, the kidnapping of the Israeli soldier, the need to release him and try and de-escalate, and I have a call in to Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert –I hope to speak to him tomorrow. And I also spoke to President Bashar al Assad of Syria this morning, and so I am in touch with leaders in the region. President Abbas was quite positive, and I think indeed if they have come to an agreement, an agreement that will require them to work together, avoid the kind of development which was ebbing towards a civil war that we were all worried about, then of course we should all be very happy about it.

I will have to go and meet the Iranian Foreign Minister, so the last one.

Q: Why did you speak to Bashar al Assad on the Palestinian issue, or was it on the Palestinian issue, why did you speak to the Syrian President on that? And how concerned are you about an operation in Gaza?

SG: I have urged restraint on all parties, and that is also one of the reasons why I will be talking to Prime Minister Olmert tomorrow morning. When I spoke to President Assad we are all trying to find ways of helping defuse the situation, and I was talking to anyone who is likely to have influence on the situation to play a role and to use their influence to ensure that the prisoner was released and that we are able to defuse the situation. I think this is also what the leadership under President Abbas would like to see. And I did speak to President Assad because of the presence of the Hamas faction in Syria - the [Khaled] Mashal faction.

Thank you very much.