Good Afternoon,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Welcome to you all. As some of you may know, according to the Chinese Lunar calendar, today marks the beginning of the spring season of the new year. As the old Chinese saying goes, "A whole year's work depends on a good start in spring." I hope this augurs well for the work of the Security Council in this year.

I have invited you here mainly to brief you on the work programme of the Council for this month. But before I do so, let me say that as a matter of principle, I will do my best to make this month's work of the Council as open as possible and the presidency as accessible as possible, including to you friends from the corridor. I have always held the view that the success of the work of the Council depends on a variety of factors and your enthusiastic and objective reporting is an indispensable part.

Now the work programme. The Council formally adopted the work programme during this morning's consultations. I believe you have already got a copy of it. As you can see, we have arranged a total of five public meetings or open briefings, on the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, Report of the Security Council's Mission to Central Africa, the Middle East, Timor Leste and Iraq, respectively. We have scheduled consultations on such issues as DRC, Somalia and the Middle East. We will have a private meeting on the 12th, during which we will hear a briefing by His Excellency Mr. Bryant, Chairman of the National Transitional Government of Liberia. In addition, we have put a few items in the footnote, which include Burundi, West Africa, CTC and Working Group on Conflict Prevention in Africa. We will arrange meetings on these as well as on other issues if the situations so require.

That's a brief introduction to the work programme, which I hope you will find useful and helpful for your understanding of the work of this month. As you may see, conflicts in Africa remain the focus of attention of the SC. In the meantime, the Council will continue to follow closely the developments in the Middle East, Iraq and other areas. I would like to conclude by expressing my hope and belief that through its deliberations and actions on the aforementioned items, the Council will make a real contribution to the resolutions of the issues concerned, thus furthering the cause of maintaining international peace and security, which is the primary responsibility of this Council.

Thank you.