Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki has asked the United Nations to mobilize resources to tackle global problems, including high food prices and rampant piracy along the coast of Somalia.
A statement from the Presidential Press Service received here on Monday said Kibaki called on the UN to help coordinate efforts to stabilize global food prices and ensure an efficient movement of food from surplus to deficit nations.
The international community must also address the instability in financial markets, high-energy costs and resultant high food prices through concerted efforts, President Kibaki said during a meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in Doha, Qatar.
The call came as food prices in Kenya threaten to reach crisis proportions.
President Kibaki and the UN chief expressed concern at the deteriorating security situation in Somalia.
The Kenyan President asked the UN to support a regional meeting set for Nairobi on December 9 to discuss piracy, noting that the problem has greatly destabilized the movement of vessels carrying essential supplies to ports along the Indian Ocean.
The president also briefed Ban Ki-Moon on challenges Kenya is facing because of the influx of the refugees to Kenya due to the instability in Somalia.
He said Kenya is ready to assist Somalia in tackling the challenges facing the country and called on the leadership of Somalia to resolve their differences, unite and address the serious challenges facing the country.
President Kibaki who is also the chairman of the Great lakes Conference, briefed the UN chief on regional efforts to resolve the crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The two sides called for a continuation in the cessation of hostilities to give dialogue a chance among the concerned parties.
Meanwhile, Kibaki also held separate talks with Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir during which they discussed energy and other bilateral matters.
During the meeting, President al-Bashir made an assurance that plans to provide Kenya with oil at a concessional rate were advanced and the country's energy minister will visit Kenya soon to seal the deal.
President Bashir also assured President Kibaki that implementation of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) is underway.
Kenya will appoint a special envoy to the CPA evaluation and implementation Committee. The two leaders agreed that Kenya, Sudan and Uganda governments will work together to deal with the problem of cattle rustling in the region.
Kenya and Sudan have been embroiled in diplomatic row over the shipment of military arms Khartoum said was destined to the semi-autonomous South Sudan government.
Sudan alleged that Kenya is involved in illegal weapons delivery to southern Sudan government through the Ukrainian ship seized off the Somali coast on Sept. 25. But Nairobi has denied the charges.
Since the arms were captured by the pirates, speculation has been rife that the arms were headed to southern Sudan, although both the Kenya and south Sudan governments have denied the reports.
The east African nation has always insisted that the military hardware was destined for its army. But various military and diplomatic sources say it was being passed on to south Sudan.
Under a peace agreement signed in 2005 in Nairobi, which ended a two-decade civil war in Sudan, neither the north side nor the south side, is allowed to upgrade its army in cease-fire zones without the other's approval.
Source:Xinhua
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