Lack of necessary resources and material assistance from the rich countries hindered African countries in their endeavor to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) said South African President Thabo Mbeki Thursday.

Speaking at the UN summit, Mbeki described as "half-hearted, timid and tepid" the international community's commitment of the necessary resources for the attainment of the MDGs.

He said a lack of what the Outcome Document described as "a security consensus" has prevented the continent from making the expected progress, citing widely disparate conditions of existence and interests among UN member states as well as the gross imbalance of power that define their relations.

The document was considered a much watered-down draft to be submitted to the summit for approval by world leaders. Hard negotiations over the final text delayed several times the closing of the 59th assembly and the opening of the 60th assembly.

"It is the poor of the world whose interests are best served by real and genuine respect for the fundamental proposition that we need the 'security consensus' identified by the Outcome Document," he said.

Mbeki criticized what he called "the rich and powerful" countries for using their power to perpetuate the power imbalance in the handling of global affairs and blamed such actions for failure to achieve the desired resource transfer from the rich.

"Simply put, this means that the logic of the use of power is the reinforcement of the might of the powerful, and therefore the perpetuation of the disempowerment of the powerless," he said.

Mbeki said the time has come for world leaders to get to real business, so that when the current Assembly concludes, world people will have just cause to say that their leaders have indeed acted to ensure the faithful implementation of the Millennium Declaration.

(Xinhua News Agency September 16, 2005)