Bush Calls on Un to Unite Against Terror

The US president George W Bush addressed the opening ceremony of the UN summit today, calling for its member states to "put terrorists on notice" and show compassion to the world's needy.

The world summit started this afternoon - attended by over 150 kings, presidents and prime ministers - after weeks of political wrangling and infighting over the organisation's final declaration on how to combat world poverty and reform the institution itself.

Talking well beyond his allotted four minutes, Mr Bush called for comprehensive international agreement to fight terrorism. "The terrorists must know that wherever they go they cannot escape justice," he said.

He also pressed for security council approval of a resolution calling upon all nations to prosecute and extradite anyone seeking radioactive materials or nuclear devices.

The prime minister, Tony Blair, is due to address the assembly later today. He will be seeking support for a resolution he has tabled asking other governments to take action not only against people who practice terror, but those who encourage or support it.

Mr Bush also revealed plans this afternoon to drop all trade tariffs, subsidies and other barriers and called on other nations to follow the US example.

"The Untied States is ready to eliminate all tariffs, subsidies and other barriers to the free flow of goods and services if other nations do the same," he told the summit. "The path to great wealth is great trade ... the elimination of all trade barriers could lift hundreds of millions of people out of poverty."

Mr Bush also made an appeal for the UN to continue to support the Iraqi people and help them reach a state of self-rule. "Human rights must also stand for human freedoms," he said.

At the start of the multinational assembly, the secretary general, Kofi Annan, admitted that the members had failed to achieve the sweeping reform the organisation needed.

"Let us be frank with each other, and the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required," he told the assembled leaders.

Mr Annan said the body's biggest failing was on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. He blamed "posturing" for the failure to find a common approach to the spread of weapons of mass destruction - one of the 21st century's main security threats.

The president of the general assembly, president Goran Persson from Sweden, opened today's meeting with a speech warning that "millions of lives will be lost if significant steps aren't taken now to fight global poverty ... [and] we will pass on a more unfair and more unsafe world to the next generation."

Just hours before the summit began, the member states eventually agreed on a final declaration to tackle global poverty and reform the body. But critics say poorer nations appear to have lost out in the watered-down document.

In what he described as a "high-risk gamble", Mr Annan and other leaders of the general assembly decided to drop the issues on which there was no agreement, decide on language for which they thought they could win approval, and put a clean text to member states.

The meeting, on the 60th anniversary of the UN, has also been overshadowed by the Iraq oil-for-food scandal which uncovered bribery and corruption within the body.