The international community is urging governments to support the effective, authority and resource base of the United Nations while the world body continues its streamlining institutional reform.

The appeal was contained in statement handed over to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan Wednesday by the president of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), Adnan Kassar. The statement portrayed a world business message for the Millennium Assembly on the role of the United Nations in the 21st century.

It was delivered on behalf of the ICC worldwide membership of more than 7,000 business associations and companies, located in more than 130 countries and territories.

The Millennium Assembly begins on September 5, 2000 in the U.N.

Headquarters in New York, with a summit of heads of state and

government to start the following day. This special session of the

U.N. General Assembly, or the 55th General Assembly session, is to

chart goals and directions for the United Nations and the international community at the opening of a new century and millennium.

The ICC message urged the upcoming Millennium Assembly to ensure that the United Nations takes the lead in supporting a rules-based open system of international trade and investment while opposing all forms of protectionism.

Relevant U.N. agencies and programs, and not the multilateral trading system, should be the recognized global institutions for raising environmental and labor standards and promoting human rights, the ICC said.

These are the core values cited by Annan in his initiative for a Global Compact between the United Nations, business and civil society.

"We welcome the Global Compact that the Secretary-General proposed almost exactly one year ago for cooperation between business and the United Nations in raising environmental and labor standards and promoting human rights," said the ICC president said at a press briefing following his meeting with Annan.

The ICC statement said that history has shown that improvements in human rights and in labor and environmental standards are more readily attainable in conditions of rising prosperity, produced by the interaction of the market economy and good governance.

"Strong commitment to open markets and the effective treatment of these issues are mutually reinforcing and should go hand in hand," it said.

The decision to submit a business statement in advance of the Millennium Assembly next September was taken at a meeting in Geneva in July between Annan, the heads of relevant U.N. agencies and the ICC. Top executives from 27 leading international companies from both developed and developing countries also took part.