The Secretary-General had been in touch over the weekend with President El Hadj Omar Bongo of Gabon concerning the President's efforts to mediate the conflict in Congo-Brazzaville.

A mini-summit was being held in Libreville today, involving the presidents of Mali, the Central African Republic and Chad, as well as the Foreign Minister of Senegal.

The advance team of the Commission of Inquiry in charge of investigating human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo was scheduled to depart from Geneva for Kinshasa on the evening of Thursday, 19 June.

The Secretary-General had proposed to dispatch the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Sir Kieran Prendergast, as his Special Envoy to Israel and the occupied territories in connection with the resolution adopted by the emergency special session of the General Assembly.

Regarding allegations of misconduct by Italian peace-keepers in Somalia in 1993, Eckhard said it was not clear from the dates whether the alleged incidents took place during deployment of the Unified Task Force (UNITAF) or during the United Nations Operation in Somalia (UNOSOM).

Talks on East Timor were scheduled to get under way this week.

The Secretary-General's recommendation on Liberia stated that a joint coordination mechanism should be set up between the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the United Nations in Liberia.

This day marked the beginning of the daily briefings on the forthcoming special session of the General Assembly, "Earth Summit + 5".