United Nations Radio

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has left Liberia for Burkina Faso as he continues his four-nation tour of West Africa.

In Liberia he highly praised the efforts of the first woman president of the country Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf in leading Liberia to peace and stability.

According to Mr. Ban, in the last four years, Liberia has made "tremendous progress" in the area of peace building and strengthening regional cooperation. Its success prompted the Secretary-General to propose a draw down of the UN Mission there. He said that the first phase will be completed by the end of September, while the full withdrawal conducted in three-phases is expected to take place by 2010. Mr. Ban stressed, however, that this doesn't mean the UN will abandon Liberia.

"This draw down will be made in a gradual and step by step manner, so that it will not create any negative impact to this peace consolidation process. And even when this draw down will be made, all the UN agencies, funds and programmes will continue to operate for the development projects in Liberia."

The next and last stop in the Secretary-General's West Africa tour will be Côte d'Ivoire.

Reporting for UN Radio, I'm Elena Vapnitchnaia.

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