SG: Thank you, Prime Minister, and good afternoon ladies and gentlemen of the media.

It is a great pleasure for me to visit Sweden for the second time as Secretary-General of the United Nations.

Mister Prime Minister, let me begin by expressing my deepest thanks for your warm hospitality and welcome and I would like to congratulate you as President of the European Union. I count on your great and dynamic leadership in addressing many important and serious global challenges, and I'm counting on your leadership and am ready to work very closely with you in your national capacity as Prime Minister, as well as in your capacity as the Presidency of the European Union.

This morning I was very impressed by the passion and commitment demonstrated by young leaders, school children and college students who were very much inspiring to me and who are very creative in sending out strong and powerful messages to the world through their REClimate video competition, through their songs and through their ideas. I was very much impressed by them.

I also applauded Sweden's leadership on climate change during my just-concluded luncheon hosted by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister made an inspiring speech before the General Assembly of the United Nations during the summit meeting on climate change.

He said, if I may correctly recall, that the world has got the fever, this fever is going on and going up. We must cool down this fever and we must work together to address climate change. I thank you for your strong statement and strong leadership during this summit meeting.

As the Prime Minister has just said, it was the largest ever gathering of Heads of State and Government and heads of state focusing on climate change. We were able to harness much needed political commitment and leadership. The only things which I am urging is that the negotiators should make progress to meet the expectations and guidelines of the leaders. I will begin my discussions again with Prime Minister Rasmussen of Denmark tomorrow who will be the host and chair of the climate change meeting in December.

During our working luncheon, I also conveyed to the Prime Minister how much we value Sweden's and the European Union's uncompromising dedication to the common good of humanity, in practically every field of activity in which the United Nations is engaged - ranging from conflict prevention, peace building, peacekeeping, development, humanitarian assistance, human rights to the pressing peace and security issues facing us today.

We discussed the situation in Afghanistan and Cyprus and we also discussed many other important issues. We will continue to work together on many issues of concern [to] the international community.

As you know, my visit to Sweden is short but very packed. After this engagement I will have the honour of an audience with his Majesty King Carl XVI Gustav and then visit the gravesite of former Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld before delivering a lecture and having an exchange with the students at Uppsala University.

I'm also looking forward to my meeting with Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson and my visit to the Parliament, as well as my meeting tomorrow with representatives of Sweden's vibrant non-governmental organizations.

Again, I want to thank you very much, Prime Minister, and Swedish Government and people, for their great leadership, dedication, commitment and generous contribution for the future of humanity.

And for your generosity and hospitality you are showing me and my team during my visit.

Q: Secretary-General, the Prime Minister gave a somewhat pessimistic view of the run-up to the Copenhagen meeting. What is your assessment of the situation at the moment and whether we will get a comprehensive agreement in December?

SG: There was much concern expressed before the summit meeting on climate change on September 22nd. It generated political will. I think we were able to harness much needed political momentum. Leaders demonstrated their commitment and reaffirmed their leadership role to make a breakthrough.

Our responsibility from now, at the leaders' level, is to make these negotiations move so that we can seal a deal in Copenhagen. That is a political and moral imperative that world leaders should do. We have to seal a deal in Copenhagen for the future of humanity and for the future of planet earth - that I am urging world leaders - to act as global leaders in addressing this global challenge.

The European Union's role will be critically important. The European Union can play a role as locomotive; the European Union has the most capacity in terms of finance, in terms of technology and in terms of political will. The European Union has also made their 20-20-20 visions, they have agreed to an energy and climate package in December last year. I hope the European Union, under the leadership of Prime Minister Reinfeldt as President of the European Union, will play the role of pulling ahead and pushing from behind.

There are still some countries that are reluctant, who are not ready. But you should be pushing them and pulling them. Thank you very much.

Q: A question to both Prime Minister Reinfeldt and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Why is it so important to reach a comprehensive deal in Copenhagen? Isn't it an option to continue negotiations after a framework deal to avoid a watered down deal in Copenhagen?

SG: We need to have a good agreement on the midterm target calls by the industrialized countries as the IPCC recommends, a 25-40 percent cut against the level of 1990. Industrialized countries should agree to provide substantial financial and technological support. I'm encouraged that a concrete proposal has already been raised during the summit meeting on climate change, as well as during the G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh.

I hope that the leaders will be able to agree on this proposed 100 billion dollars annually for the coming decade. The developing countries should also be able to take nationally appropriate mitigation actions in a reportable, measurable and verifiable manner.

We should be able to agree on a global governance structure, framework. Those key issues which we are working on, and I hope we will be able to agree on that.

At the same time you should understand practically that in Copenhagen we may not expect to agree on all the matters in a detailed manner. When we have a good agreement on these key political issues, then we can continue our discussions to build on. This is our target at this time.