[13 February 2005] WASHINGTON,(Saba)-UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is to address an international security conference after a day which highlighted clear
differences in approach between the United States and Europe.

Annan's speech entitled "A More Secure World: The Role of the United Nations" kicks off the final day of an event at which the United States and Europe agreed they needed to change the way they work together to combat weapons proliferation, but appeared at odds on how to do it.

Germany was strongly against the US-led invasion of Iraq and Schroeder conceded there had been "strains, mistrust and even tensions" between the United States and the European Union in recent years.

NATO is the most impressive military alliance in the history of mankind,US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. "But it is what it is... there are some times when things have to happen fairly rapidly."

TD
SABA