Nothing lost, nothing conceded, nothing given away.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan used the opportunity of a statement delivered to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, in Beijing on 1 April, to elaborate upon "the nature, the demands and the promise of the agreement" he had reached with the Government of Iraq in February. These are excerpts from that statements.

I went to Baghdad, with the full authorization of all members of the Security Council, in search of a peaceful solution to the crisis. That crisis is for now averted. The mandate of the Security Council has now been reaffirmed. The access of United Nations inspectors has not only been restored, but expanded to include any and all sites.

Indeed, in the weeks since the agreement, UNSCOM [United Nations Special Commission] has for the first time in seven years been able to enter a number of sites which so far had been inaccessible, including the so-called presidential sites. Whether the threat to international peace and security has been averted for all time is now in the hands of the Iraqi leadership.

Iraq's complete compliance with the Security Council's demands is the one and only aim of this agreement. Nothing more and nothing less will make possible the completion of the disarmament process and thus speed the lifting of sanctions in accordance with the previous resolutions of the Security Council. This agreement tests as never before the will of the Iraqi leadership to keep its word. But it also serves as a call for the region and the international community to look to the future, beyond the horizon and to the time when the disarmament process in Iraq has been completed.

All of us can agree that sanctions have added greatly to the Iraqi people's suffering; that the expansion of the "oil-for-food" programme will reduce that suffering without diluting the disarmament regime; and that someday, sooner or later - and we pray sooner - a properly disarmed and peaceable Iraq would be able once again to take its rightful place among the family of nations.

The agreement was neither a "victory" nor a "defeat" for any one person, nation or group of nations. Certainly the United Nations and the world community lost nothing, gave away nothing and conceded nothing of substance. But by halting, at least for now, the renewal of military hostilities in the Gulf, it was a victory for peace, for reason, for the resolution of conflict by diplomacy.

For the peoples of the Middle East, this is a time of challenge and fragile progress that requires patience, determination and courage. If the agreement that I reached with the Iraqi leadership is sustained, we may see genuine progress towards long-term peace and stability in the Gulf.

If the agreement with the Iraqi Government is fully implemented and leads over time to a new day in the Gulf, if this exercise in diplomacy, backed by fairness, firmness and force, stands the test of time, it will serve as an enduring and invaluable precedent for the United Nations and the world community. It will prove that acting united, the world can prevent conflict.

Now we must see similar progress on the Arab-Israeli front, which is as vital to the region as it has ever been. My visit to the region last week confirmed that no one is under any illusion about the steps that must be taken, or about the compromises that must be made, or about the concessions that must be granted if peace is to flourish. It must be a peace that restores dignity, self-determination and security to all sides.

For the United Nations, there is no higher goal, no deeper commitment and no greater ambition than preventing armed conflict. The prevention of conflict begins and ends with the protection of human life and the promotion of human development. Ensuring human security is, in the broadest sense, the United Nations cardinal mission.