UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced today that he has asked Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg to lead efforts to propose measures that will strengthen UN work in the poorest countries of the world.

Prime Minister Stoltenberg has accepted the appointment to co-chair a high-level panel together with Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz and Mocambique's Prime Minister Luisa Diogo.

"Norway is one of the UN's strongest supporters", Mr. Stoltenberg says. "We want a UN that is even more efficient and goal-oriented. This is important in order to increase world-wide support for the organisation. We should learn from voluntary organisations as well as from the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation. A stronger and more efficient UN will make it possible to achieve the goals set at the turn of the millennium", the Prime Minister says.

Other members of the new UN panel are British Minister of Finance Gordon Brown, former President Ricardo Lagos of Chile and former President Benjamin William Mkapa of Tanzania.

The high-level panel has been established in accordance with the wish of the UN summit in September 2005. The panel's proposals will be presented in time for the UN Assembly General this September, and will thus be of central importance to the UN's further efforts to realise the millennium goals.