Friday, March 10 2006 12:23 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: The Iran issue, need to reform the world body and newly established Central Emergency Response Fund were among a wide range of international matters that came up during a meeting between Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

The Minister told Annan that India has a strong case for permanent membership of the expanded Security Council.

He said he was confident that New Delhi would occupy its rightful place on the powerful panel which decides the issues of peace and security.

India is for wider United Nations reforms to enable it to meet the challenges of the current century, he told reporters after the half-an-hour meeting last evening.

On Iran issue, he said the Indian position favours resolution through negotiations rather than punitive action.

Earlier, Sharma announced a two million dollar contribution on behalf of India for the Fund

Asking the United Nations and the international community to move beyond providing emergency assistance to developing nations struck by disasters, Sharma said countries should be helped to build their capacities to enable them to "mitigate the effects and manage their own responses" to such crises.

"Development cannot be sustainable unless disaster mitigation is built into the development process at all levels. The International community has to maintain its focus beyond emergency relief and to support the medium and long-term rehabilitation, reconstruction and risk reduction efforts of the governments of affected countries," he said.