United Nations:
French President Nicolas Sarkozy today called for a global tax on financial transactions as the UN Millennium Goals summit heard pleas for a new effort to cut poverty.
Sarkozy pressed his controversial tax initiative just after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on world leaders at the summit to provide the necessary money, aid and political will to help the planet's most vulnerable.
More than 140 heads of state or government are to speak at the three day summit which will seek ways to kickstart the eight Millennium Development Goals which were first launched at a UN summit in 2000.
The aims include cutting the number of people in extreme poverty by half and the number of children who die before reaching age five by two thirds, to fairer trade and spreading the Internet to the world's poor.