SG: Thank you very much Mr. Prime Minister, and good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, I am very much pleased to visit the United Kingdom at the early stage of your Premiership and congratulations on your new responsibilities and I am looking forward to working very closely with you on all the challenges [that] we address.

I am all the more appreciative of your hospitality, as I know I have arrived at a particularly challenging time for this Government and for the British people.

Mr. Prime Minister, allow me to pay my tribute to you and your colleagues for the very swift, dignified, decisive and composed way you have responded to renewed reminders of terrorism over the past few weeks, even as you were dealing with the pressures of transition.

Ladies and gentlemen,

As you just heard, the Prime Minister and I have held very good discussions on a rich and broad agenda. Our talks have underscored the highly constructive role played by the United Kingdom across the entire spectrum of the UN's work –from Darfur to climate change, from the Middle East to the Millennium Development Goals.

The United Kingdom has understood well that in today's world of interconnected and complex challenges, there is no substitute for multilateral approaches and for the universality of the United Nations.

Mr. Prime Minister, already as Chancellor of the Exchequer, you displayed exceptional leadership on climate change, on the challenges of Africa, and such [matters as] system-wide coherence of the United Nations system and on the work to reach our common vision for development through aid, trade and debt relief.

I am delighted that we have now taken our partnership to a whole new level. We have many taxing challenges before us, but I feel reassured that I will be able to depend on a partner as profoundly committed and knowledgeable as you.

I very much look forward to working with you in the years ahead.

Thank you very much.

Q: There has been some belligerent noises from Al-Qaeda and others as well among the Muslim world reacting to the knighthood given to Salman Rushdie. I wanted to ask you both. How do you react to that kind of belligerence and (inaudible) thoughts and do you think that the knighthood was particulary helpful? I wonder if I could also ask you. You seem, in your statement at 12.30 at the House, to be abolishing the idea of the secrecy of the (inaudible) Manchester, is that the case?

SG: Terrorism, under any circumstances, under any cause cannot be justified, cannot be accepted. The United Nations has been quasi-coordinating to fight against terrorism, recently we were [requested] by the Member States decision to establish a Global Counter-Terrorism strategy. We have established a task force to implement this Global Counter-Terrorism strategy. Therefore I will again tell you strongly, in the strongest terms, that any threat, or any use of terrorism, will never be tolerated by the international community.

Q: Mr. Secretary General, the United Nations commission has explored the idea, the problem of the Shebaa Farms in South Lebanon,and came to the conclusion that it belongs to Lebanon. How do you see the impact of this on the situation in south Lebanon and also Mr. Brown, is it time now to talk to Hamas after a year and a half of it being isolated by the West?

SG: As a part of my report to the Security Council, as a part of implementing Security Council resolution 1701, I have submitted my report on this issue, including the question of the Shebaa Farms. My senior cartographer has been working on this issue and he has made good progress. But this report is not mentioning anything about the ownership or sovereignty yet. My cartographer has been making research based on historical maps and historical materials and he has not yet been able to (inaudible). But I think we have made good progress in determining the exact location of Shebaa Farms and I hope the Member States of the Security Council will discuss this matter, but this report should be more complemented in the months to come.