Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Thursday called for the establishment of a new international political and economic order.

Speaking at the UN summit, Chavez said this historic meeting dismisses to secondary importance a most urgent need, which is to adopt measures that will confront the real problems hindering the whole world's development.

"Five years have passed since the Millennium Summit took place," he said. "The crude reality is that most of the goals we then set, as modest as they were, will not be accomplished."

Thus Chavez called on nations to build a new international economic order, saying "It is practically and ethically unacceptable to sacrifice the human species, by outrageously defending the legitimacy of a socioeconomic model with destructive capability."

It is suicidal to insist on spreading and imposing this model as the infallible remedy for the evils it itself causes, he added.

Meanwhile, the president also appealed for the establishment of a new international political order.

"We must not allow a handful of nations to reinterpret the principles of international law with impunity, in order to impose doctrines such as preemptive war, and the so-called duty to protect, which are incompatible with effective international law," he said.

Chavez stressed that the full respect of the principles of international law and of the UN Charter must be the fundamentals of international relations in today's world, and also the basis for a new world order.

"The reform of the UN cannot be limited to a simple cosmetic change of the Security Council, aimed at ensuring the unipolar hegemony of developed countries," he declared.

When talking about terrorism, he said the international community must confront terrorism with effective policies.

"We cannot allow (terrorism) to be used as a pretext for unjustified military aggressions that violate international law, and which seem to be the ruling doctrine after the September 11 attacks," he stressed.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2005)