With five years left to the target date for the achievement of the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the challenge remains "immense," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said here Tuesday as he called upon the international community to accelerate efforts.

"We stand at a crossroads," the secretary-general said in his remarks at an informal meeting of the General Assembly at the UN Headquarters in New York where he also presented his report titled, "Keeping the Promise: A Forward-Looking Review to Promote an Agreed Action Agenda to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals by 2015."

Ban's report lays the groundwork for September's high-level summit on the MDGs, which is aimed at boosting efforts to achieve the anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to achieve by 2015.

"The challenge is still immense," Ban said, noting that the financial and economic crisis, the food crisis, climate change and natural disasters have threatened to "reverse hard-won gains."

"My report aims to point the way forward... to reinvigorate our efforts and to strengthen the global partnership," Ban said.

With preparations underway for the summit, Ban outlined his three-part strategy for the MDGs and internationally agreed development goals.

The UN will pin-point proven, cost-effective initiatives, which can be scaled up, as well as strengthen efforts to raise public awareness to achieve the MDGs, Ban said.

Active participation by governments is crucial for the upcoming summit, in which "political momentum is of critical importance," he said.

"Progress has been very uneven," he said, noting particularly in the least developed countries and countries that are in or emerging from conflict.

"We are off course because of unmet commitments, inadequate resources and a lack of focus and accountability," Ban said.

The upcoming summit provides the international community an " opportunity to do better," Ban said emphasizing a global partnership through technology.

"Rarely have so many individuals -- citizens and CEOs, philanthropists and political leaders -- found such common ground, " Ban said. "We must realize the great potential of this global coalition..this global movement."

Meanwhile, the secretary-general also highlighted progress in many countries, namely in sub-Saharan Africa which has achieved one of the largest-ever reduction in deaths from measles and shown the fastest growth in primary school enrollment.

"Let's keep our promise and turn the MDGs into a reality for all," Ban said.

(Xinhua News Agency March 17, 2010)