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UN opens summit on anti-poverty goals

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-20 22:14

A general view of the Millennium Development Goals Summit at the UN headquarters in New York September 20, 2010. [Photo/Agencies]

UNITED NATIONS - About 140 world leaders on Monday kicked off a three-day high-level meeting here to accelerate the implementation of UN anti-poverty goals, or the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

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"All United Nations members make a single international community. Nobody can stand alone from poverty," Joseph Deiss, the president of the 65th General Assembly session, said at the opening of the high-level meeting.

The summit is expected to measure progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), and review the difficulties in the process.

With just five years to go before the deadline for achieving the MDGs, the leaders will discuss how and where they can do more in the remaining period to defeat poverty, reduce hunger, stop environmental degradation, improve education, boost maternal and child health and reach the other remaining targets.

The MDGs, endorsed by world leaders in September 2000, set out eight targets which range from halving extreme poverty to halting the spread of HIV/AIDS and providing universal primary education, all by the target date of 2015.