By
The Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS - The largest gathering of world leaders in history convened yesterday, turning New York into a global kaleidoscope of Falun Gong protests, Mideast peace talk, traffic-snarling motorcades and bigwig shoulder rubbing.
The purpose of the Millennium Summit was to chart the course of the United Nations in the 21st century - particularly its efforts to forge peace. The meeting was clouded by a faraway reminder of the challenges facing the international body: the killings of U.N. aid workers in West Timor.
After a moment of silence in their memory, President Clinton called upon the world's nations to provide the resources the United Nations needs to keep the peace. He also sought the world's support in forging a settlement in the Middle East: "They have the chance to do it, but like all life's chances, it is fleeting and about to pass."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, called for an international conference to be held in Moscow that would ban the militarization of space - a response to American proposals for an anti-missile defense system.
The three-day meeting of despots and monarchs, presidents and prime ministers opened festively, with limousine after limousine arriving at the international headquarters on Manhattan's East Side.
The leaders - more than 150 of them - greeted each other with handshakes and kisses on the cheek. Their socializing delayed the start of the summit by nearly a half hour.
There was Putin, arriving without a suit jacket. There was Fidel Castro in a business suit and Yasser Arafat in his usual olive-green uniform and checkered headdress.
"The new millennium is an opportune time, as any, for a fresh start," said the president of the Maldives, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. "The gap between expectation and result must be eliminated."
But for all of the high spirits, there were no illusions that the summit would in itself change the world and cure it of its ills.
"The problems seem huge," said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, listing poverty, the AIDS epidemic, wars and environmental degradation. "But in today's world, given the technology and the resources around, we have the means to tackle them. If we have the will, we can deal with them."
While Annan is hoping for new commitments to the U.N. goals of ending poverty and wars, some heads of state are expected to use the three days of speeches, discussions and meetings to push their own agendas - including those critical of the United States.
In a taste of what may come, North Korea denounced the United States as a "rogue state" Tuesday, claiming the government was responsible for allegedly ordering the search of members of the delegation as they switched planes in Germany. The incident prompted Pyongyang to call off the summit trip by No. 2 leader Kim Yong Nam, who had been scheduled to meet South Korean President Kim Dae-jung.
