Annan, Bush to discuss Iran, Iraq, Darfur, Mohammed cartoons

Feb 9, 2006 (UNITED NATIONS) — UN chief Kofi Annan said that the Iran nuclear issue, the Prophet Mohammed cartoon row and a UN role in Sudan’s troubled Darfur region would top the agenda of his talks in Washington.

The UN secretary general is to meet US President George W. Bush at the White House on Monday.

“We have a lot of issues on the agenda to discuss and I’m looking forward to the meeting,” Annan said. “We will of course discuss the Iranian issue, the situation in Iraq, the Middle East… I would not be surprised if the issue of the cartoons comes up.”

The secretary general has joined other world leaders in trying to calm worldwide Islamic furor over the publication of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed.

Islam considers any image of Mohammed to be blasphemous.

Other issues to be taken up include plans to replace the beleaguered African Union force in Darfur with a robust, mobile and better-equipped UN force, UN reforms and the crisis in Ivory Coast, he added.

Annan, who has had an uneasy relationship with Washington since the Iraq war and the corruption scandal over the UN oil-for-food program for Iraq, made it clear that relations were on the mend.

“We have been on the phone quite frequently, and so there has been quite a lot of dialogue going on between the (Bush) administration and myself,” he noted. “And I think we’re working reasonably well together both with the president and Secretary of State (Condoleezza Rice).”

(AFP/ST)