Secretary-General's press encounter following ceremony to commemorate International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People [unofficial transcript]

SG: I'm doing my best efforts to solve all the problems. It is true that we have not yet been able to resolve all the technical problems because of the delay in the response from the Sudanese government, and I'm disappointed with all that is happening now. There were firm commitments between myself and President [Omar al-]Bashir, and still we have not yet been able to resolve all these administrative things. We have to talk about the SOFA –Status of Forces Agreement –for the peacekeepers and the composition of forces and for the acquisition of land, landing rights during night flights. All these are technical issues and administrative issues which should not cause any problems. I'm working very hard in close coordination with the African Union [Commission] Chairperson, Mr. [Alpha Oumar] Konaré.

Q: Have you been on the phone with Mr. Bashir?

SG: I'm going to do it. But I'm now working with all possible means and mobilizing all possible means.

Q: What's going to happen if the Sudanese Government doesn't meet all of its commitments? What's going to happen by the end of the month? This force is supposed to start deploying 1 January.

SG: I hope that the Sudanese Government will come to agree as soon as possible. We have been experiencing this very difficult process of consultation, but so far the Sudanese Government has been showing a sense of cooperation, as we have seen. We have made credible progress so far but now we are working very hard to deploy as soon as possible. My position is that whatever problems we may have at this time, as much as we can, I am now trying to move to deploy as soon as possible.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, the cooperation seems to be a lot in words, but have they actually backed that up with actions, and how will you make them do that?

SG: My answer will be the same. I'm really working hard to have consultations. Even this morning, I had consultations with some important member states who can really work for this problem.

Q: Sir, with Palestine effectively split in two, how do you see the way forward on this new timetable that has now been set in place?

SG: There was a very historic agreement to launch negotiations, to address all the pending issues and agree on a peace treaty by the end of 2008. There is a follow-up mechanism; we are going to have an important donor conference in Paris on December 17th, and the Russian Government offered their willingness to host a follow-up conference sometime early next year. With all this, I hope we will be able to facilitate and urge, and implementation is most important thing. What is the important thing is that we do tomorrow what we say today.

Q: What about Gaza, sir? He asked about Gaza. What about the situation in Gaza? How are you going to solve this problem, sir?

SG: This is a source of great concern for me. During the Quartet meeting, I had conveyed a fact sheet on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. As the Secretary-General of the United Nations, I have broad humanitarian responsibilities. I have urged again when I met with Prime Minister [Ehud] Olmert that he should take immediate action to ease access and movement, look at the very difficult situation in Gaza, look at the humanitarian situation. I am really working very hard to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Q: Mr. Secretary-General, you've been on the job for almost a year now. Can you give us a bit of a self-evaluation, how things have gone?

SG: This I will do later. Thank you.