PM to attend United Nations General Assembly session

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will attend the United Nations General Assembly session next week in New York where India's priority will be on reforms of the powerful Security Council to reflect the current realities.

Leaving on September 21 for participating in the high- level segment of the 66th session of the UNGA, India along with other members of the G-4 (Brazil, Japan and Germany) will work to push for reforms of the UNSC at the earliest for a robust international security and peacekeeping operations.

The G4 members are keen on getting permanent membership of the UNSC.

He will be accompanied by a delegation that will include External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon, Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai and Principal Secretary to the PM T K A Nair.

Briefing reporters on the visit, Mathai said Singh would be addressing the UNGA on September 24 and that India's priority in the current session would be on working for reforms of the UN Security Council that should be reflective of current realities.

Singh would be attending the UNGA after a gap of two years. He had last addressed the 2008 session.

He ruled out any meeting between the Prime Minister and US President Barack Obama, who would leave New York before Singh's arrival there on September 22, or with Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, who has reportedly cancelled his visit because of flood situation his country.