UN chief outlines reform plans

Annan called for an expanded Security Council, fixed rules for when nations could go to war, strengthened human rights and boosted development and trade, as well as a sweeping overhaul of the UN bureaucracy.

"This hall has heard enough high-sounding declarations to last us for some decades to come," Annan said in a speech to the UN General Assembly to present his 63-page report, which he called the biggest UN reforms in history.

"We all know what the problems are and we all know what we have promised to achieve. What is need now is not more declarations or promises, but action -- action to fulfil the promises already made," he said.

Annan wants the major changes to be agreed at a summit of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York in September, which will mark the UN's 60th anniversary.

"What I am proposing amounts to a comprehensive strategy," he said. "I urge your heads of state and government to be ready to take those decisions when they come here."

But it is unclear how much political will exists to adopt his proposals, which come two years after bitter debates over the US-led war in Iraq brought the United Nations to what he called a "fork in the road."

One of the most sensitive ideas is to expand the Security Council, with Annan offering two models. One option would add six new members to its five permanent powers: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.

The other would add a third tier of semi-permanent members to the council, the top UN body for international peace and security.

Annan said the council should set guidelines to determine when military action can be authorised, an issue that has been in the spotlight since the United States invaded Iraq without council approval.

He has said that the deep divisions over the war threatened to undermine the international system of security in place since the United Nations was founded in the wake of World War II.

"The United Nations must be brought fully into line with today's realities," Annan said.

On terrorism, Annan put forward a long-elusive definition that said no cause could justify non-state entities killing or harming civilians in an attempt to influence government policies and actions.