UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas is expected to address an open meeting of the UN Security Council to press for the immediate cease-fire in Gaza, UN officials said here Tuesday.
The 15-member council is scheduled to hold the open session on the Gaza conflict at about 5:30 p.m. EST, and President Abbas is the first to take the floor at the council meeting after UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who repeated his call for an immediate end to the bloodshed in Gaza and southern Israel and said that it is regrettable the council did not take action on how to end the conflict.
The open meeting will be chaired by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country holds the rotating council presidency for the month of January.
Also present at the council meeting were David Miliband, the British secretary of state for foreign affairs, Ali Babacan, the Turkish foreign minister, Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. secretary of state, Abdurrahman Mohamed Shalgham, Libyan secretary of the General People's Committee for Foreign Liaison and International Cooperation, Michael Spindelegger, Austria's federal minister for European and international affairs and Alexander Yakovenko, deputy Russian foreign minister.
Representatives of all 15 members of the Security Council, including China, registered to speak at the open meeting, the officials said.