UN head begins South America trip

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is in Argentina at the start of a tour of South America that is to focus on climate change.

His first trip to the region since he took office nearly a year ago will take him from the jungles of the Amazon basin to the Antarctic.

Mr Ban will also meet the presidents of Argentina, Chile and Brazil.

After South America he visits Spain for a meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The South America tour is also an opportunity to meet leaders of countries he has not visited before.

Mediation offer

In Argentina he is meeting President Nestor Kirchner and his wife, Cristina, who will be taking over as president in December.

He said he would offer to mediate in the dispute between Argentina and Britain over the Falklands, or Malvinas, islands, but neither side had yet responded.

Mr Ban will go to Chile on Thursday where he will open the Ibero-American summit and then fly to Antarctica to see the consequences of global warming and the impact of melting glaciers.

The secretary general's next stop will be Brazil for a meeting with President Luis Inacio da Silva and a trip to the Amazon, where he is expected to go for a boat ride.

With what he has learnt in South America, Ban Ki-moon will go on to Valencia in Spain for a meeting of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

The report released there will set the stage for the UN climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December.