After a year of mounting criticism, Secretary-General Kofi Annan defended the United Nations yesterday and urged global leaders to restore the organisation’s credibility by adopting broad reforms needed for the world to act together to tackle poverty, terrorism and conflict.

US President George Bush says that the Palestinians should follow through on Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza by establishing a peaceful government in the area as a starting point toward coexistence with the Jewish state.

Pakistan’s president said his country would work with nuclear rival India to ease tensions in the disputed Kashmir region and to start “a new era of peace and cooperation in south Asia”.