At the same time, Secretary-General Kofi Annan, at the annual U.N. General Assembly debate among more than 150 presidents, prime ministers and foreign ministers, expressed apprehension that the fight against terrorism would overshadow programs to combat poverty, disease, and education.

``The number of people living on less than one dollar a day has not decreased,'' since the Sept. 11 attacks against the United States, he said on Saturday. ``

South African President Thabo Mbeki said it was obvious that the fundamental conflict in the world today is the deprivation of millions ``co-existing side-by-side with islands of enormous wealth and prosperity.''

``This necessarily breeds a deep sense of injustice, social alienation, despair and a willingness to sacrifice their lives among those who feel they have nothing to loose and everything to gain,'' he added.

Nine Latin American president spoke, most saying they had direct experience with terrorists, with Colombia's Andres Pastrana and Peru's Alejandro Toledo having been victims of kidnappings themselves.

``Unequal distribution causes frustration and despair ... and generates the conditions that give rise to conflicts and clashes where different types of fundamentalism are at work,'' Argentina's President Fernando de la Rua said.

French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine warned wealthy nations that building up a just global community ``instead of just talking about it or yearning for it, will mean giving up privileges, sharing wealth and power in new ways, and rewriting certain rules hitherto held to be inviolable.''

U.S. President George Bush made his first speech at the United Nations, and then watched speaker after speaker support anti-terrorism measures he advocated. ``The time for action has now arrived,'' he told world leaders from all regions..

The assembly session, known as the ``general debate,'' was postponed in September after the attacks and condensed into one week of speeches until Friday. Noting the short distance between U.N. headquarters and the World Trade Center, Bush said ''many thousands still lie in a tomb of rubble.''

A FEW NATIONS UNEASY

Despite the overwhelming support for counter-terrorism action, the war in Afghanistan made a few nations uneasy, especially neighbors Pakistan and Iran, who supported opposing Afghan factions over the past decade of civil war.

Iran's President Mohammed Khatami cautioned against ''unilateral practices stemming from pride and rage,'' while all-important U.S. ally Pakistan advised Washington to develop an alternate strategy if the military option faltered.

The United States began bombing Afghanistan a month ago in an attempt to stop its Taliban rulers from protecting al Qaeda and its leader, Saudi-born extremist Osama bin Laden, which Washington accuses of planning the Sept. 11 attacks that killed more than 4,600 people.

The opposition Northern Alliance, with U.S. help has succeeded in recapturing the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, near the Uzbekistan-Tajikistan border.

Russia, the United States and Afghanistan's neighbors called on the Northern Alliance on Saturday to respect human rights in newly captured territory and let in relief workers.

In a statement issued after a meeting of experts in New York, the so-called six-plus-two group said it welcomed reports that the Northern Alliance had issued a general amnesty in Mazar-i-Sharif, which it captured from the Taliban on Friday.

The meeting in New York was between representatives of Russia, the United States, China, Iran, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. It was attended by the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan, Lakhdar Brahimi, who is trying to organize a broad-based Afghan government if the U.S. campaign overthrows the Taliban.

The human rights concern was well founded, because one of the key commanders entering Mazar-i-Sharif was Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, renown for human rights abuses when his forces were in city from 1992-97 and fought on the outskirts of Kabul. His followers were accused of rape, torture, murder, theft, thereby paving the way for the Taliban.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, whose country helped bring the Taliban to power, has been opposed to the Northern Alliance, also known as the United Front, from taking over Kabul. Bush after meeting Musharraf late on Saturday said Washington had discouraged the alliance from entering Kabul.

U.S. officials have long feared a bloodbath in Kabul in which thousands would die and blame Washington for the carnage. Fighting between ethnic and political Afghan militia over the last decade destroyed about a third of the city.

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited

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