S.Mironov: [translated from the Russian]

Ladies and gentlemen, We have just finished our meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. You have probably noticed that our meeting lasted longer than it was planned. It was a very meaningful and interesting discussion. We have managed to cover all major international issues, such as Middle East settlement, situation around Iraq, Afghanistan, conflict between Georgia and Abkhasia and feature of Nagorny Karabakh. We have also discussed such a painful and serious problem as AIDS. I am very grateful to the Secretary-General for his high assessment of Russia's contribution and effort to resolve the situation in Afghanistan.

Question to Mr. Kofi Annan: [translated from the Russian] What is the UN planning to do to prevent conflict between India and Pakistan?

SG: I think we are working very closely, I am working very closely, with other world leaders to try and help de-escalate the situation. And I am in touch with the leadership of both countries - India and Pakistan. And I've spoken to them as recently as yesterday. And I'm also hoping that at the Almaty meeting President Putin and [President of China] Jiang Zemin and other leaders will have the opportunity of speaking to Prime-Minister Vajpayee and President Musharraf to try and help to reduce tensions and save us from any further escalation.

I am hopeful that the discussions in Almaty will make a positive contribution and we are coordinating our efforts and I would hope that none of us is contemplating a nuclear war. And both leaders have indicated that they will not use nuclear weapons. The Prime Minister of India said that he would not use a nuclear weapon and General Musharraf has also said that he would not be the first to use a weapon. The logical conclusion is that the two parties will not use a nuclear weapon. But we hope that even short of that, that there will be no conflagration.

Question to Mr. Mironov (after the Secretary-General has left): What other humanitarian problems have you discussed?

S. Mironov: We have discussed at length the problem of human rights. The violation of human rights is one of the most serious problems everywhere in the world. The Secretary-General and I spoke about human rights of ethnic Russians in Latvia and Estonia. We both agree that violation of human rights at the time of conflicts is the most serious problem. And now then the fight against terrorism goes on we must be very careful about human rights and all of us should keep in mind that there could not be double standards in this field. *****