Requests the UN system to intensify its assistance to the African Union in strengthening the institutional and operational capacity of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union; urges the UN system to examine the possibilities of assisting the African Union in the following areas: (a) Mobilization of financial resources to support the African Union Peace Fund; (b) Establishment of the Panel of the Wise; (c) Establishment of a military staff committee; (d) Creation of an African standby force; urges the UN to encourage donor countries to contribute to adequate funding, training and logistical support for African countries in their efforts to enhance their peacekeeping capabilities, with a view to enabling those countries to participate actively in peacekeeping operations within the framework of the UN; also urges the UN to contribute to the enhancement of the capacity of the African Union to deploy peace support missions; stresses the urgent need for the UN and the African Union to develop close cooperation and concrete programmes aimed at addressing the problems posed by the proliferation of small arms and light weapons and anti-personnel mines; calls upon the UN system to continue to cooperate with the African Union in the creation of its organs and the implementation of the protocols to the Constitutive Act of the African Union and the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community; urges the UN system to increase its support for Africa in the implementation of the declaration of the extraordinary summit meeting of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and other related infectious diseases, and the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, so as to arrest the spread of these diseases, inter alia, through sound capacity-building in human resources.

Adopted without vote, 56th plenary meeting

7 p.