 Your Majesty, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, today before we start our big session at six o'clock, we are honoured by the presence of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who joins us again and who will share with us before we start the session his thoughts on what needs to be done to overcome violence and restore peace if possible and stability in the world's most troubled regions, namely Syria and now also Mali. Secretary General, two days ago in your address to the UN General Assembly, you articulated tremendous political, security and humanitarian efforts required to address all those tremendous challenges and how, to shape the future we want, we will have to think and act innovatively and differently. We will have to be wise, responsible and forward-looking to quote you and to work as one to deliver for all. And as a leader who embodies all those attributes, it's my great pleasure to introduce UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Thank you, Dr Krauss and Shabab. Excellencies, distinguished guests and ladies and gentlemen, it is a great honour and pleasure for me to be in Davos and share some of my thoughts and of the United Nations on very important and serious issues which international community should address. And I welcome the opportunity to speak in this special forum. I want to use our time together to highlight two immediate crises facing the international community and the United Nations, the dire situation in Syria and the Sahel. Let me start by offering a bit of broad context before I go into this more in detail. These are times of tremendous turmoil and change. I call this period the Great Transition. The old order is breaking down, new arrangements are taking shape. We see this happening in economic terms. The developing world is becoming the focus of global growth. Time is moving from west to east, from north to south. We see it environmentally, slowly but steadily. We are coming to realize the risk of a carbon-based economy, slowly but steadily. We are moving towards an era of sustainability and green growth. A demographic transformation is also underway. Some societies are aging while others grow remarkably young. And people everywhere are on the move from country to country in search of safety and opportunity and from rural areas to cities on a rapidly urbanizing planet. And finally, the Great Transition is deeply political. People are demanding accountability, human rights, an end to corruption and misrule. And they are doing so with the force that has taken the world by storm and by surprise. These transitions bring both hope and uncertainty. These situations we are now experiencing. We experience new freedoms but worry just the same about jobs and instability. The winds of the Arab Spring have swept away some repressive rulers but left many questions swirling in the air. We are not passive in the face of these trends and events where the wisdom, foresight and greater sense of collective responsibility, we can build a better future for all. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to use this platform today to use a call to action on two immediate crises, the death spiral in Syria and the widening turbulence in Mali and the Sahel. Let me take them each in turn. The military confrontation in Syria is exerting a tremendous toll on the civilian population. Well over 60,000 people have already been killed during the last 22 months. I'm deeply pained if I think whenever I think how many people will have to be killed if we do not bring an end to this unacceptable situation. Yet the political environment remains polarized within Syria and across the region. A deadly military momentum prevails inside Syria and among those states that are helping to fuel the conflict by sending weapons to one side or the other. I call again for such arms flows to stop. The conflict in Syria is driven by a profound political crisis. It must be resolved by political means that bring real change, a clear break from the past and fulfill the legitimate democratic aspirations of the Syrian people. Unfortunately, the Syrians are still not able to sit down together at the table to work out the practical details of a transition plan that protects Syria's citizens and preserves the vital institutions of a state. They are failing to recognize each other, let alone speak to each other while their country is in flames. However difficult this situation may be, we must push for a political solution. Seemingly intractable divides have been bridged in other conflicts and contexts. As long as there is a possibility to end this crisis through talks, that is what we must keep doing. Special Representative Dr. Lakta Brahimi continues his diplomatic efforts. We are focusing on finding convergences that can form a foundation for building a political process to replace the military momentum. Dr. Brahimi enjoys my full support and that of the Arab League Secretary General Nabil el-Arabi. Yesterday we had a trilateral talks how United Nations, League of Arab States can work together to bring an end to these situations. It will be essential for the Security Council to overcome the deadlock and find a unity that will make the meaningful action possible. The alternative, letting the side to fight it out until the end, resigning ourselves to serious destruction with all its original implications, that is too costly and unacceptable. That would be an abdication of our collective responsibility to protect. The world and above all the Security Council must uphold its responsibility. The situation on the ground is already catastrophic and continues to deteriorate. More than 4 million people have been affected by this situation and they are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance. Of 20 percent of the country's population have been affected. Nearly 700,000 people have fled the country. They are now hosted in four countries, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Turkey. I myself have visited refugee camps last month in Turkey and Jordan. As winter has arrived and deepening violence and political stalemates make it likely that these numbers will grow, I commend Syria's neighboring countries for hosting these refugees. I urge them to continue to allow these, those people who are seeking to refuge, they should open their borders to those refugees, to safety, and I urge the international community to support the host countries to avoid unnecessary strain on local communities. In Syria, schools across the country continue to fill up with the displaced people seeking shelter, thereby displacing girls and boys seeking on education. Many children have now gone two years without schooling and have been cast into a world of waiting and witnessing their cities and their very futures crumble around them. The humanitarian assessment team that just visited the country was besieged with a request not just to provide assistance but to understand the psychological impact the crisis is having. We continue to see unrelenting human rights violations. I'm profoundly concerned about the crimes that have been committed and about those that could still take place if already high sectarian tensions explored into mass reprisals and killings that irreversibly damaged the intricate mosaic of communities that all Syrians have been long proud of. We must do everything we can to guard against this. Both the Syrian government and the opposition must avoid and prevent rifts along confessional and sectarian lines. It must be made clear to everyone carrying a gun or in a command position that all perpetrators of crimes of humanity in Syria will be held to account. Despite the dangerous security environment and the limitations imposed to the government, humanitarian agencies are feeding 1.5 million people and providing basic relief supplies for some 400,000 people every day. But it is just not enough. We have been able on occasion to establish tactical, very temporary ceasefire that permit assistance to move. Even a few hours can make a big difference. The humanitarian community needs 1.5 billion dollars for the next six months. The largest ever short-term appeal. However, our appeals to date have been woefully underfunded. That is why I'm going to convene international donors conference in Kuwait together with Amir of Kuwait on January 30th. For many years, Syrians have shown great generosity and solidarity in hosting themselves refugees from Palestine, Iraq, and Somalia. The international community now should come to Syria's aid in its time of need. Ladies and gentlemen, the crisis in Mali is deepening. The country is under grave threat from extremist armed insurgents, a toxic mix of poverty, extreme climate conditions, weak institutions, drug smuggling, and easy availability of deadly weapons is causing profound misery and dangerous insecurity in and beyond Mali. More than 350,000 Malians have fled their homes. 18 million people across the Sahel region are affected by the consequences, including the threat of food shortages. Mali has called for help in restoring its constitutional order and territorial integrity. France has taken an important decision to deploy troops following the traveling move southward by extremist groups. The African-led international support mission for Mali, called AFISMA, is taking shape, organized by ECOWAS, with the support from the African Union and other troop contributors. The United Nations is fully committed to helping Mali in its hour of need. That assistance will necessarily run from security efforts to those in the humanitarian and political areas. Our humanitarian agencies are focused on getting food, water, other assistance to internally displaced people and other vulnerable populations. The protection of civilians is growing concern. There are reports of sexual violence, recruitment of child soldiers, and reprisals against civilian Tuareg and Arab populations. The International Criminal Court, ICC, has opened an investigation into alleged war crimes. I have dispatched to Bamakum, an advanced UN political team, to assist on both the political and security tracks. The team includes expertise on political affairs, military planning, human rights, and gender concerns. Additional staff will deploy in the days ahead, giving us a presence on the ground, able to lend full support to the process. The team has already begun discussions with Mali partners on a transitional roadmap. That would cover all key issues. Solutions will not come quickly or simply. Mali is at heart of political challenge, requiring political solutions. Basically, it was a coup d'etat and a collapse of Mali's democracy that opened the way for extremists. Gains in restoring security must be matched by efforts to restore legitimacy in Bamakum while leaving the door open to negotiations with those groups that renounce terrorism. I am personally committed to ensuring that the United Nations stands ready once the regrettably necessary combat operations are over to undertake a major system-wide effort for peace-building, governance, and security sector reform, physical reconstruction, and regional cooperation. This is a moral imperative for all in the international community. Let us also remember the bigger picture. What happens in Mali is affecting the entire region, and we cannot expect to address the issue in Mali unless we confront the challenges affecting the broader region. The governments and people of Sahel need our full support. The United Nations has mobilized over $1 billion to support the immediate needs of affected populations, including more than 1 million children under the age of five at risk of acute malnutrition. While recent rainfall promises are better harvest season, the warning lights continue to flash. My special envoy for the Sahel, Mr. Romano Prodi, former Italian Prime Minister, has been focusing on key issues, security, governance, humanitarian requirements, and development. And he is engaging a full range of stakeholders, including women, religious and business leaders, representatives of the region's tribes, and others. The goal, an integrated strategy that would address all dimensions of this sustained and systemic crisis. Mali and Sahel will be on the agenda at the African Union Summit that I will attend after leaving Davos. I urge all the leaders to do their part in the collective response to Mali's plight, and I reiterate the United Nations' strong commitment to do ours. Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, here in Davos today, we have also been looking beyond prices to the far horizon, the shape of the world, a decade or two from now. The need to provide water, energy, food and health for an expanding human population. That far horizon is actually dearer than we think. Those supposedly long-term issues are actually silent crises with us today. The death of children from preventable diseases, the melting of the polar ice caps because of climate change, our duty is to show solidarity with those today seeking democracy and dignity. And with those tomorrow, our children and theirs who have a right to inherit a world of stable societies and a secure resource base. My forward hope and determination is to rise to these tests, from Syria to the Sahel, from climate change to extreme poverty. Let not our inaction today lead to harsh judgment tomorrow. People and policies are connected like never before. We must pull together because we are tied together. From Syria to Mali today, to the foundations for peace and prosperity tomorrow, that is my call to action to you and to the world at this time. I thank you very much for your commitment and for your attention. Thank you very much.