ECOSOC Outlines Strategic Priorities for Poverty Eradication 　　The United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) outlined strategic priorities for poverty eradication in a president statement Friday at the end of its 1999 session. 　　With poverty eradication as the major focus of the ECOSOC session from July 5 to 30, the statement said, the participants from the ECOSOC's 54 members acknowledge that the major challenge facing the world in the new millennium is the eradication of poverty. 　　The statement called on governments, international organizations, civil society and the business world to join hands with the United Nations in an all-out campaign to fight the scourge of poverty in the world. 　　"In order to succeed, we must empower the people living in poverty and ensure that they participate fully in this fight," the statement said. 　　The ECOSOC said that about 40 billion US dollars a year are needed to achieve the international goals related to poverty eradication. 　　As a first step, the UN agency vowed to reduce by half the proportion of people living in extreme poverty (with less than a dollar of income a day) by 2015. It is estimated that 1.3 billion people still live in abject poverty worldwide. (Xinhua) WorldNews 1999-08-02 Page7 Full Story in Chinese