Taken together, this amounts to a far-reaching package of changes. But let us be frank with each other, and with the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required. Sharp differences, some of them substantive and legitimate, have played their part in preventing that.

Our biggest challenge, and our biggest failing, is on nuclear non-proliferation and disarmament. Twice this year -- at the NPT review conference, and now at this Summit -- we have allowed posturing to get in the way of results. This is inexcusable. Weapons of mass destruction pose a grave danger to us all, particularly in a world threatened by terrorists with global ambitions and no inhibitions. We must pick up the pieces in order to renew negotiations on this vital issue, and we should support the efforts Norway has been making to find a basis for doing so.

Likewise, Security Council reform has, for the moment, eluded us, even though everyone broadly agrees that it is long overdue.

The fact that you have not reached agreement on these and other issues does not render them any less urgent.

So this package is a good start. On some issues, we have real breakthroughs. On others, we have narrowed our differences and made progress. On others again, we remain worryingly far apart.

We must now turn to the next stages in the reform process.

First, we must implement what has been agreed. The coming session of the General Assembly will be one of its most important, and we must give our support to President Eliasson as he assumes his duties. We must get the Peacebuilding Commission and the Human Rights Council up and running, conclude a comprehensive convention on terrorism, and make sure the Democracy Fund starts working effectively. And the coming years will test our resolve to halve extreme poverty by 2015, to act if genocide looms again, and to improve our success rate in building peace in war-torn countries.

These are the tests that really matter.

Second, we must keep working with determination on the tough issues on which progress is urgent but has not yet been achieved. Because one thing has emerged clearly from this process on which we embarked two years ago: whatever our differences, in our interdependent world, we stand or fall together.

Whether our challenge is peacemaking, nation-building, democratization or responding to natural or man-made disasters, we have seen that even the strongest amongst us cannot succeed alone.

At the same time, whether our task is fighting poverty, stemming the spread of disease, or saving innocent lives from mass murder, we have seen that we cannot succeed without the leadership of the strong, and the engagement of all.

And we have been reminded, again and again, that to ignore basic principles – of democracy, of human rights, of rule of law – for the sake of expediency, undermines confidence in our collective institutions, in building a world that is freer, fairer and safer for all.

That is why a healthy, effective United Nations is so vital. If properly utilized, it can be a unique marriage of power and principle, in the service of all the world's peoples.

And that is why this reform process matters, and must continue. No matter how frustrating things are, no matter how difficult agreement is, there is no escaping the fact that the challenges of our time must be met by action – and today, more than ever, action must be collective if it is to be effective.

For my part, I am ready to work with you on the challenges that remain , on implementing what has been agreed, and on continuing to reform the culture and practice of the Secretariat. We must restore confidence in the Organization's integrity, impartiality, and ability to deliver – for the sake of our dedicated staff, and those vulnerable and needy people throughout the world who look to the United Nations for support.

It is for their sake, not yours or mine, that this reform agenda matters. It is to save their lives, to protect their rights, to ensure their safety and freedom, that we simply must find effective collective responses to the challenges of our time.

I urge you, as world leaders, individually and collectively, to keep working on this reform agenda -- to have the patience to persevere, and the vision needed to forge a

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