Annan: World is no safer

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the world is not safer than it was a few years ago, but did not comment on whether the US is more secure, which has become an issue in the US presidential campaign.

President George Bush has said repeatedly that invading Iraq made America safer. His Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry dismissed the claim.

Annan was asked at a news conference yesterday whether he would say the world is safer than it was two or three years ago, given the recent violence in many countries.

“My answer … is no,” the secretary-general replied. ”I cannot say that the world is safer today than it was two or three years ago.”

Bush said on Tuesday that his re-election will ensure safety for Americans as well as for those in the rest of the world in the war against terrorism.

“After four years more in this office, I want people to look back and say: ’The world is a more peaceful place,'” Bush told supporters at a community college in Iowa.

“Four more years and America will be safer and the world will be more peaceful.”

Last week, Kerry rejected Bush’s claim that Americans are safer and said that if elected, his number one security goal would be to prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Annan criticised Bush’s decision last week to cut $34m (€27.7m) in congressionally approved assistance to the UN Population Fund.

The secretary-general said he was “very encouraged” that Britain announced on Tuesday that it was giving £80m (€120.3m) to the agency.

“That was a shot in the arm that they needed,” he said.

The US said it is convinced that the fund helped China manage programs that involved forced abortions. The fund’s executive director, Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, has called the US allegations baseless and said the UN agency would never use coercion.

Annan praised the Population Fund’s work to promote reproductive health and urged other governments to support its global activities.