Stresses that eradicating poverty is the greatest global challenge facing the world today and an indispensable requirement for sustainable development; also stresses that the deep fault line that divides human society between the rich and the poor and the ever-increasing gap between the developed and developing worlds pose a major threat to global prosperity, security and stability; stresses that the 1st UN Decade for the Eradication of Poverty (1997-2006) should contribute to achieving the targets of halving, by 2015, the promotion of the world's people whose income is less than one dollar a day and the proportion of people who suffer from hunger; stresses the importance of increasing access to and control over resources for the poor and of improving access for all to basic social services; stresses the importance of meeting the special needs of Africa; stresses that the goal of halving the proportion of people living on less than one dollar a day by 2015 will not be achieved without serious efforts to address the development needs of the least developed countries.

Adopted without vote, 78th plenary meeting

6 p.