New York, Dec 30 - The UN podium is the only place in the world where leaders great and small, and their opponents, can attack each other without physical harm.

And perhaps the most memorable moment at the UN in 2009 was when Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi strode into the General Assembly Sep 23 to deliver a stinging tirade against superpowers and the world organisation.

Gaddafi - making his first ever appearance before the 192-nation assembly in New York - was determined to shock the audience of presidents and prime ministers.

He derided nearly every UN programme and tossed the UN Charter, a small blue book, to the ground.

Gaddafi dubbed the Security Council a "terror council", because it is dominated by veto-wielding Western superpowers.

"The Security Council has since 1945 imposed terror and sanctions against us and for this reason, we should not adhere to its resolutions," Gaddafi told delegates.

However, the Libyan leader failed to show up at a UN Security Council session on nuclear disarmament Sep 24 convened and presided over by US President Barack Obama, the first US leader to lead a debate on disarmament in the 15-nation council. This was despite Libya being a council member.

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, followed Gaddafi to the podium the following day, determined to beat the Libyan leader's 90-minute-record speech - officially, each speaker is allotted five minutes to accommodate all world envoys.

Chavez used his time for his favourite subject - attacking Western powers.

The council session on nuclear disarmament was the highlight of the 64th session of the UN General Assembly, at which world leaders used the opportunity being in New York to hold bilateral meetings.

The presidents of the other 14 council members attended, including Dmitry Medvedev of Russia, Nicolas Sarkozy of France, Hu Jintao of China and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Meanwhile, as the global recession took hold in early 2009, the UN General Assembly decided to meet the challenge of assisting poor countries.

A total of 140 countries met June 24-26 to report back on the financial and economic burden on their poverty-stricken nations.

They came from Africa, from Asia and from Latin America, decrying the drying up of foreign direct investment, while their economies struggled with reduced exports and outflow of capital due to the crisis.

The developing countries asked for more than $1 trillion in stimulus money to keep their economies afloat. They blamed developed countries for triggering the economic downturn. The crisis has already driven 50 million people into extreme poverty, which is equal to living on less than $1.25 a day.

By the end of 2009, big economies showed signs of a shy recovery under the impact of massive stimulus at the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars. Many poor countries were still struggling and did not see the billions they asked for.

Meanwhile, the fate of the planet, and the career of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon himself were under the microscope at the UN climate change talks in Copenhagen at the end of the year.

The decisions - or lack of them - made there are likely to reverberate far past 2010. (dpa)