Shalom calls Annan to voice support

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, often critical of the United Nations, offered UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan his support on Friday following calls by hardline U.S. legislators for the UN leader's resignation.

"He said he knows he is going through a hard time and that Israel appreciates what he is doing for Israel since he is in office," said Anat Friedman, spokeswoman for Israel's UN mission of Shalom's telephone call to Annan.

Annan, she said, has been outspoken against anti-Semitism, terrorism and suicide bombers. More recently, Annan put his weight behind a special General Assembly session for January to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.

Israel has been at odds with the United Nations but not Annan personally, particularly over the many resolutions in the General Assembly in favor of the Palestinians.

Most other UN members have voiced support for Annan during probes over corruption in the oil-for-food program for Iraq. The Bush administration a week ago expressed confidence in the secretary-general.

Under the plan, which is being looked into by at least six committees in the Republican-led Congress, Iraq was allowed to sell oil to buy civilian goods in order to ease the impact of 1990 sanctions on ordinary Iraqis.

FM thanks Annan for efforts to hold UN Holocaust sessionShalom thanked Annan on early Friday for his efforts to dedicate a special commemorative session in the General Assembly to mark the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. The session is is slated to be held in January.

A majority of the 191-member assembly will have to approve the session, requested by the United States and supported by Russia, France, Hungary, Canada and the Netherlands, representing the 25-member European Union and other nations.

Annan has begun polling General Assembly members in an effort to convene the session, UN officials said this week.

The UN chief told Shalom during a phone conversation that he is personally committed to the issue and views it as important, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

In response to an invitation by Shalom to visit Israel, Annan said he would be happy to make the trip this coming year.

A session on the Holocaust would mark a change for the General Assembly, which sets aside several days a year for resolutions on the rights of Palestinians and Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Soviet Red Army troops freed the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland on January 27, 1945. The 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz is to be observed in 2005 as Holocaust Memorial Day.

U.S. Ambassador John Danforth, in a December 10 letter to Annan, said the General Assembly should convene three days before the anniversary to avoid conflicting commemorations in Auschwitz.

U.S. Congressman Tom Lantos, a California Democrat and the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in the U.S. Congress, told Annan on Monday that Arab nations had raised objections. However, Yahya Mahmassani, the Arab League's UN ambassador, told Reuters he was unaware of any opposition.

"I am appalled by what I understand is the opposition of some [Arab] countries to this session, which reflects a degree of a historical and mindless venom which is difficult to justify in the international arena," Lantos told reporters, without naming any nation.

The secretary general said he was determined to do everything in his power to proceed with such a session, he added.

"I feel very deeply and strongly about the importance of a special session," said Lantos.

Lantos survived by serving as a 15-year-old messenger for Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews near the end of World War II. Wallenberg is the uncle of Nane Annan, the wife of the secretary-general.