Press Encounter with the Secretary-General following his meeting with the G8 Contact Group on Food Security in Africa

SG: We had a very good meeting on agriculture and what we need to do to help with long-term food security in Africa as well as the emergency situation that we are facing. And I am really gratified that the G8 officials came here to discuss with us how we tackle this very difficult problem, which is compounded by AIDS and of course the governance issues that we are facing.

Q: On another issue. Can you tell us anything about an internal UN document that has been reported in the paper today about UN Administration proposals for Iraq. What can you tell us about that plan?

SG: I think it is unfortunate that that document has been given such importance. We have been doing lots of good work and contingency planning for the humanitarian aspects and obviously some preliminary thinking on what would happen if there were to be war and the other aspects of post-conflict Iraq. There is no UN plan for administering post-conflict Iraq. We have no mandate to make these plans and in fact yesterday, at the lunch with the Security Council members, we discussed very clearly the status of the Secretariat's contingency planning, particularly on the humanitarian aspects, and we did raise some of the legal and important issues that would be posed if there were to be a war. So there is no UN plan for managing or administering Iraq. There is some preliminary thinking but there is no plan and no document.