UN Chief to Meet Bush on Afghanistan

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan is scheduled to go to Washington D.C. Wednesday for talks with US President George W. Bush and other top officials on Afghanistan and other issues, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, the Annan-Bush meeting will be attended by top U. S. administration advisors. The UN chief will meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell the same day, spokesman Fred Eckhard said.

Annan is also scheduled to discuss reconstruction in Afghanistan in separate meetings with President of the World Bank James Wolfensohn and Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Horst Koehler.

Eckhard told reporters that Afghanistan agenda has "made it more vital" to talk with Washington officials.

Annan's visit coincides with the on-going week-long UN-sponsored Afghan talks in Bonn, Germany. The talks, the first of its kind since the Northern Alliance entered the capital of Kabul, began Tuesday in an effort to bring factions of the war-ravished Asian state to negotiate political and security structures in the post-Taliban era.

Annan also wants to include UN development issues such as the conference on financing for development scheduled for next year in Mexico and the HIV/AIDS, the spokesman said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 28, 2001)