A China UN ambassador Monday urged the international community to formulate a comprehensive strategy to deal with the complex challenges facing the Sahel region.

Li Baodong, China's permanent representative to the UN, made the statement at an open debate of the Security Council on the situation in the Sahel region, where UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- moon, his Special Envoy for the region, former Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and other high-level UN officials made their briefings.

"The various problems existed in the Sahel region are inter- linked and affect each other," said Li. "Therefore, a holistic and integrated approach is called for."

"We hope the secretary-general will, based on the request of the Security Council, broadly seek the views of the regional countries and relevant organizations and come up as soon as possible with a comprehensive UN strategy for the Sahel with a clear-defined objective and practical measures," he said.

Li noted that the key to realize the lasting peace and development in the Sahel region lies in tackling the fundamental problems, which include poverty and lack of development.

"The international community, particularly the donor countries and international financial institutions, should enhance their funding and technical assistance to the countries in the region taking the achievement of the social and economic development as priority " Li said.



Further calling for enhanced coordination among the international community, the Chinese ambassador stressed that any effort to solve problems in the Sahel should fully respect the ownership of the regional countries and organizations.

"In providing assistance to the Sahel, the international community should respect the sovereignty and independence of the regional countries, and make full use of the existing initiatives and proposals of countries in the region and regional groups," Li said.

As for the crisis in Mali, Li urged the international community, on the basis of respecting the sovereignty of the country, to take fast and effective actions to help Mali deal with its multiple threats including separatism, terrorism and extremism.

"We support the transitional government of Mali in promoting political process, restoring constitutional order quickly in order to safeguard the unity and territorial integrity of its country," Li said, adding that China is willing to continue to contribute to full settlement of the problems in the Sahel region at an early date.