It is extreme arrogance for one to think he...and it's usually he, is the only one who can govern his country and nobody else can do it.

One has to have the strength of character to say the time has come to move on... unless you are a king.

I spent my youth and my most formative years in Africa. I left Africa when I was about 20, 21, and when Mo says a great African, I was really moulded by my African experience, although I had the good fortune that by the time I was 24 I had studied and worked on three continents - Africa, the US, and Europe.

Human beings are not property. On the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery, let us reaffirm the inherent dignity of all men, women and children. And let us redouble our efforts so that the words of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights - 'no one shall be held in slavery or servitude' - ring true.

We need to think of the future and the planet we are going to leave to our children and their children.

Let us, above all, be clear that, without a convincing program of debt relief to start the new millennium, our objective of halving world poverty by 2015 will be only a pipe dream.

Let us work in partnerships between rich and poor to improve the opportunities of all human beings to build better lives.