UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon started his first day on the job on Tuesday by promising immediate attention to the crisis in Darfur but backing off traditional UN opposition to capital punishment.

Ban, a former Republic of Korea (ROK) foreign minister succeeding Kofi Annan of Ghana, was greeted by a UN honor guard and then went to a UN meditation chapel to honor fallen peacekeepers.

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Asked about the weekend execution of Saddam Hussein, Ban, 62, told reporters the former Iraqi leader was responsible "for committing heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities against the Iraqi people."

But he said: "The issue of capital punishment is for each and every member state to decide" in conformity with international law.

However, his special representative in Iraq, Ashraf Qazi, released a statement saying that the world body "remains opposed to capital punishment, even in the case of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide."

Ban said the crisis in Sudan's Darfur region was "very high on my agenda."

He also announced he would attend an African Union summit at the end of this month in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and talk to Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir there.

"By engaging myself in the diplomatic process I hope that we will be able to resolve peacefully as soon as possible these serious issues," Ban said.

The United Nations is seeking to get a peacekeeping force in Sudan's western arid Darfur region, where violence has escalated, rapes have multiplied and more than 2.5 million people have lost their homes.

On the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Ban said it was a priority on his agenda, especially since he had been deeply involved in diplomacy on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions as ROK foreign minister.

But Ban was mindful of the daunting challenges and the limitations of the United Nations as well as his job.

"Not a single person, including the secretary-general of the United Nations, not a single country, however strong, powerful, resourceful, can address (these issues)," he said. "We need to have some common effort."

Ban also pledged to encourage senior staff members to talk to the media as well as member states.

He later addressed hundreds of UN staff members in New York and via teleconference at eight locations around the world, urging them to maintain the highest level of ethics and discipline in the face of recent criticism about lack of accountability, ethical lapses and inefficiency at the UN.

The new secretary-general has said his first priority will be to restore trust in the United Nations, whose reputation has been battered by the oil-for-food scandal in Iraq, corruption in the UN's purchasing operations and sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers.

He told staff members that some criticism over the past few years has been "harsh and sometimes unfair," and staff morale has "plummeted" as a result.

But he said some criticisms "warrant our urgent attention and we must take bold steps to dispel them."

Ban said he was fully committed to implementing management reforms, and promised his five-year term would be fully transparent and accountable.

He also joked about the common mispronunciation of his family name as "ban" instead of "bahn", saying: "I would never ban constructive dialogue."

The new secretary-general told the staff he was eager to begin his work.

"I stand before you humbled, with a heavy weight on my shoulders, but my heart is beating with quiet excitement," he said.

So far Ban has only announced his chief of staff, Indian Vijay Nambiar, who was a special adviser to Annan, and the appointment of Michele Montas, an award-winning Haitian broadcaster, also a current UN staff member as his new spokeswoman.

But France is expected to have its candidate head peacekeeping, UN sources said, with the United States and Britain lobbying for their nationals to oversee the political affairs department.

A Briton may be given the humanitarian affairs job, they said.

(China Daily 01/04/2007 page1)