(please quote CNN when using the following remarks)

Q: Earlier this week you said only the UN can give global legitimacy to the struggle against terrorism. Will the UN support a US-led coalition that might be formed without UN input?

SG: I think what is important here is that Member States commit to fight terrorism because the struggle is going to be a long one and it would embrace all countries. It cannot be excluded that there will be various groups coming together to do specific things, sharing information, sharing intelligence. At the same time I would want to see a broader coalition of UN membership determined to do whatever they can to end this terrorist scourge.

Q: So how will your office be taking the lead in this fight against terrorism?

SG: It's not so much my office as the Member States. I think you're going to see action by the Security Council, perhaps with specific proposals as to how governments can cooperate in fighting terrorism. And I think the General Assembly will also take measures, including its work on the Comprehensive Convention on Terrorism, which will really pull it all together. We have twelve conventions which are very specific on certain aspects of terrorism like money laundering, financial issues but this will pull it all together in one sort of omnibus convention which I hope we would be able to make good progress on during this session.

Q: I ask this for this programme "Inside Africa": African nations are asking not to be sidelined in this. How can they in particular contribute? Is there a particular contribution?

SG: I think they can also play a role. I mean, Africa has suffered from terrorism. We saw what happened in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi. They can start by sharing information with other governments, they can start by tightening their own controls they can start by ensuring that terrorists do not take shelter in their own countries and I think they have a role to play.

Q: On Afghanistan, on the humanitarian crisis on which Fred read a statement from you yesterday - you have a real conflict between the political and the humanitarian. How does that get sorted out? What are your discussions like with the US when you know there will be military action, when there will be a worsening of a refugee situation?

SG: I think most of the governments involved realize that we need to help the Afghan people. It is clear we should go after the perpetrators and those who committed this crime but we should also be sensitive to the needs of the Afghan people who have lived through several decades of war, live under a leadership they did not elect freely and cannot remove, and have gone through three years of drought. So we have a very serious situation and the UN humanitarian assistance has been an essential part of their daily existence, so I think it is important that as we move forward we do not forget the needs of the average Afghan.

Q: Do you have a message for the Taleban who show no respect for the UN: they've seized equipment, offices, threatened to kill people?

SG: My advice to them is to honor the obligations that the [Security] Council has demanded of them and in fact for the sake of their own people and country to cooperate with the international community in making the culprits accountable by releasing them to the international community. *****