World leaders attending the UN General Assembly Monday recommitted themselves to a global partnership to help the continent halve poverty, illiteracy and other socio-economic ills by 2015.

They agreed that poverty reduction, particularly in Africa, is the "greatest global challenge facing the world today," according to a declaration adopted at the end of the high-level meeting of the General Assembly on Africa's development.

They noted that, despite recent considerable improvements, the full and timely achievement of the global anti-poverty targets that make up the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) "remains elusive."

While welcoming the commitments made by Africa and its partners so far, participants recommitted themselves to "reinvigorate and strengthen a global partnership of equals with the explicit objective of turning existing commitments into concrete actions."

They agreed to enhance support for the implementation of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an overarching framework for socio-economic sustainable development in the continent.

The declaration highlighted a number of areas where further efforts are needed, including the mobilization of resources, debt forgiveness, efforts to tackle HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and boost conflict resolution, as well as addressing the impacts of climate change and the global food crisis.

(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2008)