New York  - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday called on all parties in troubled Madagascar to behave responsibly and carry out a "smooth transition through democratic means."

"This peaceful path can only be the result of transitional arrangement arrived at by consensus and enjoying wide support," Ban said in a statement.

New York  - The UN Security Council on Tuesday praised the European Union for a well-done mission in the region between Chad and the Central African Republic, where an estimated 500,000 refugees need protection and aid.

The EU mission ended its one-year mission on Sunday and was replaced by UN peacekeeping operation composed of 5,200 military troops, drawn mostly from the departing EU military components.

New York  - UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann launched yet another campaign on Tuesday against Western governments, urging them to stop demonizing Iran and its leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for wiping Israel off the map.

Miguel d'Escoto, a former Sandinista foreign minister of Nicaragua in the 1980s and a Roman Catholic Maryknoll priest, has advocated reform and "democratization" of the United Nations since he assumed leadership of the 192-nation assembly last September.

Brussels  - The European Union could boycott a planned United Nations conference on racism, set for April 20, because of alleged anti-Western and anti-Semitic references in draft documents, the bloc's presidency said Monday.

"The EU will probably send suggestions. If the conference papers are in line with that we will stay, otherwise there is a strong call to withdraw," Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg, whose country currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, said after talks with EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

New York  - A United Nations peacekeeping mission will assume responsibility on Sunday of providing security to refugees and war-displaced people in eastern Chad and northeastern Central African Republic, the UN said Friday.

The UN mission, with 5,200 military troops and known as MINURCAT, will take over European Union troops posted in the past year at the region between Chad and CAR where tens of thousands have taken refuge from fighting in Sudan's Darfur and Chad.

Geneva - The situation in northern Sri Lanka is "desperate," United Nation's top human rights official Navi Pillay said Friday, criticizing both the government and the Tamil rebels.

"The current level of civilian casualties is truly shocking, and there are legitimate fears that the loss of life may reach catastrophic levels, if the fighting continues in this way," Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said.