Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

It's a pleasure and a privilege to welcome you to the United Nations for this exceptional summit.

Let me say a warm thank you to President Bush and the people of our host country for their hospitality. I know all of you will join me in wishing them continued strength and courage in the work for recovery and reconstruction following the Katrina disaster.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is deeply moving to see the family of nations gathered here at such a high level. But it also entails a responsibility for us all -- a duty to make the most of this opportunity.

Five years ago, I had the honour of welcoming leaders and delegates in this room on the occasion of the Millennium Summit. I invited them to consider the enormity of the following thought: between them, they had the authority to speak for, and the ability to transform the lives of, six billion people.

Today, you collectively speak for an even larger number. The eyes of the world are upon you.

That is why this summit is in some sense a test for us all.

It is a test of our ability to address the most pressing challenges of our time.

It is a test of our understanding that development, security and human rights are not only ends in themselves, but that they reinforce -- indeed, depend on -- each other.

It is a test of our ability to act in concert in this interdependent world.

And it is a test of our will to strengthen the United Nations -- the indispensable common house of the human family; an indispensable tool for the international community.

Friends, concluding negotiations of this kind is always a challenge. But whatever is achieved or not in the next few days, let us not imagine that it is an end of any sort.

Our shared aspirations for peace, prosperity and human rights will not abate. We must keep working to implement what has been agreed, keep working for agreement on what has not, and keep sight of our aspirations in doing both.

And I am confident that you are giving clear instructions to your negotiators to seize the moment, and work constructively and expeditiously to strengthen our United Nations.

Ladies and Gentlemen, allow me to lift my glass in a toast: to the road ahead; to our collective mission.

Thank you very much.