[The Foreign Minister thanked the Secretary General for his visit to the Sudan at this important juncture in his opening statement. He then gave the floor to the Secretary General.]

SG: Thank you very much, Mr. Minister. Let me begin by thanking President Bashir, the Government and the people of the Sudan for the warm hospitality we have received.

Indeed we have had very constructive discussions and I am nearing the end of the three-day visit. And we have had very good political talks, and as the Minister has said, I visited displaced persons and refugees in Sudan and Chad.

I have just had a really productive meeting with President Bashir, where we discussed the need to work even harder for peace and for the protection of the civilian population and for effective assistance to the victims of the conflict.

I was glad to congratulate the Government of Sudan and the SPLA for the breakthrough in the Naivasha talks, but I also expressed my deep concern over the situation in Darfur provinces. I was deeply moved by the many accounts of immense suffering that I heard from the displaced persons in Darfur and the refugees in Chad. They all tell me the same stories of indiscriminate attacks in recent months by armed militia against civilians, and in particular, defenseless civilians. Some refugees told me that helicopter gunships participated in the attacks. The refugees and the displaced still feel insecure and we still receive reports in some places of attacks on civilians, including sexual violence against women and children.

My message on behalf of the United Nations to the Government and other parties to the conflict is therefore clear: the violence must stop; the Janjaweed militia must be disarmed and demobilized, and the ceasefire agreement must be respected by all parties.

Having overcome enormous obstacles, the UN, with NGOs and the Red Cross and Red Crescent, are at the moment providing food, water, shelter and basic health services to the several hundred thousand refugees and displaced persons in Darfur and Chad.

By the end of this month we will be able to feed a million people we have launched an ambitious 90-day programme, a humanitarian plan of action, that is. Because both funding and operations must continue to accelerate in the coming weeks and months to prevent the loss of thousands of lives.

The Government of Sudan was slow in granting access for humanitarian work in Darfur. Now we have a commitment from President El Bashir to remove all bureaucratic obstacles for all humanitarian organizations. And I must say that over the past month we have seen marked improvement in these areas, in access and issuance of visa, and we are going to build on that after the meetings we have had today.

I also have the commitment from the President and his government to ensure security for the civilian population by deploying civilian police and by disarming the militias and fully cooperate with the ceasefire monitors headed by the African Union.

The government also agreed with me that the displaced can only return to their homes voluntarily when their security is guaranteed.

The government has also agreed to prevent future human rights abuse. It will also arrest and prosecute those who have committed atrocities and compensate the victims.

I have, on behalf of the United Nations, agreed to continue increasing our international relief efforts and to appeal to donors for increased funding.

We have less than half of the funding we need to avoid starvation and epidemics in Darfur and in Chad. Many donors give too little too late; we need more money and many more trucks and other hardware, including helicopters.

Finally, I want to assure President El Bashir and the rebels in Darfur that the United Nations stand ready to work with the parties and with other international partners to achieve a speedy peaceful solution to the conflict in Darfur.

I will have talks with the African Union leaders next week in Addis Ababa on our joint efforts for peace in Darfur.

It is however the parties themselves who must agree to put past differences behind them and agree on a just and durable end to the conflict which has cost so much of suffering in the Darfurs.

We have also worked out details of how we are going to proceed and there will be a communiqué issued tomorrow morning agreed to by the government and the United Nations and we will also have a high level monitoring mechanism to ensure that what we have agreed or what the government has decided to do and what the UN promises to do will be monitored.

Thank you very much.

We will take your questions.

Q: What is the UN expected plan and role in the coming period putting into account the inadequate contribution of the international community?

SG: Let me say that I have admitted publicly that the international community was slow to respond to the humanitarian situation. There were some very good reasons, some of them, but there were also perhaps bureaucratic reasons on our side and we are stepping up very quickly to try and assist the people in Darfur and in Chad.

And so you will see a real gearing up, and in fact we have produced a 90-day programme, which is available for all of you to see. And in the discussions with the government, I have discussed what we intend to do, not only in terms of bringing in supplies, increasing the number of staff and hiring quite a lot of staff locally but we will be bringing in other assets, including helicopters and planes, that will allow us to move food around very quickly.

And I have also indicated what we will be doing; for example, in a relatively short period we will be feeding about a million people, and our efforts will continue to grow and expand. And of course we have also discussed with the government what the government is going to do to assure security and so you will see a real difference in the coming months or weeks.

Q: There were reports of bombing villages in Nyala yesterday, can you confirm?

Q: [Question answered by Minister.]

SG: I raised it too, actually.

Q: Mr. Secretary General, you got a lot of commitments from the Sudanese government through your visit; do you have, on behalf of the UN, of course, any control of these commitments and which actions the UN or Security Council will take if they don't?

SG: I think these are commitments that we have discussed here since I came and in fact the government has made the commitment publicly. And I have also indicated that we are setting up a high level monitoring system, which also shows the seriousness with which those commitments were made. And I think we have to take it on good faith and have a positive expectation on the government. And if it becomes clear after a reasonable period that is not happening, the Council may want to take further action. I cannot indicate or say what the Council will do, but first the government has made commitments and as I say we will give you details tomorrow and let's press ahead. And the government has indicated it will implement the decisions and we will monitor. If there is a problem, we will get to that and I am sure the Security Council will also do something about it.

[The Minister then also responded to the question.]

Q: One, did you meet Janjaweed leaders while you were in Darfur? And two, is there a timetable set for solving the conflict in Darfur?

SG: As to your first question, I did not meet any Janjaweed leaders and I don't know where to find them. [Laughter] You probably can tell me how to get in touch with them.

The other issue as to how quickly there could be peace in Darfur, we did discuss this and the need to make every effort to settle the Darfur issue as quickly as possible politically and the Sudan has made the strategic decision to seek a comprehensive peace throughout Sudan, and I think it is going to press very hard to resolve the issue. I cannot give you a timeframe, but I would urge all parties to really take the negotiations seriously and remain at the table and settle their differences and save the people of Darfur from the suffering that they are going through. I saw them, I saw the displaced persons, I saw the refugees; they are in a deplorable state.

Q: Secretary General, I am wondering how concerned you might be about the clashes spilling over the border in Chad and whether that was part of your discussions while you were in Chad?

SG: Yes, we did discuss that because of the movements across the border and the measures that have to be taken to stop it. But I think the most important thing to do, which would also help Chad, is to find a political settlement to the Darfur issue very, very quickly. But there is concern there, because there is movement and people move across the border with arms and on top of that they have over a hundred and seventy thousand to two hundred thousand refugees in Chad, with concern that many more would cross the border. And in a country that is just beginning to get its economic and social development off the ground, the situation is fragile and one should not have to deal with that kind of crisis.

[The Minister was then asked a series of questions about whether the militia should be disarmed before the refugees are returned home.]

Q: Do you have steps to solve the root causes of the Darfur problems in terms of development rather than temporary measures?

SG: That is one of the things that we discussed with the President and the Government. By political settlement, it also means dealing with the root causes because if you do not try to deal with that and set a framework for that, you are going to have the problem resurface again, and so part of the settlement will be dealing with that. So when we talk of political settlements it embraces dealing with the root causes.

[The Minister then answered a question about the protection of African Union monitors in Darfur.]

Q: You have met the government and you are going to meet political parties. Have you got any initiative for a political solution in Darfur?

[The Minister then took a question about the Government's plans for security in Darfur.]

SG: I think there is a mediation effort going on, assisted by the African Union and Chad, and we have offered UN assistance as we are working with the Sudanese government and SPLA in Nairobi. But the process is going, but I think it needs to be intensified. And we are prepared to help; obviously the parties have to come to the table to agree a solution. We may have suggestions and ideas but it is up to the parties to come together and decide to put the conflict and the past behind them and find a common ground and move forward.