BEIJING, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told university students in Beijing Monday that China should play a bigger role in global development and world peace.
Speaking to students at the elite Qinghua University, Annan said that as China grows in political and economic importance, it will have a larger role to play in the global community, and a greater share of responsibility for world security, state-owned Xinhua reported Tuesday.
Annan also pointed out that China has a stake in the development and prosperity of the wider world.
Annan said that the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals -- set four years ago at U.N. headquarters by political leaders from around the world -- by the target date of 2015 greatly depended on China, as its huge population and economy had a great influence on global statistics.
"We might succeed in halving the population of very poor people in the world by 2015, so long as China lifts all its people out of poverty," he said.
The secretary-general praised China's contribution to peacekeeping efforts in Haiti.
