President Ahmadinejad speaks to UN conference

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared on Tuesday that liberal capitalism faced inevitable defeat and called for the overhaul of "undemocratic and unjust" global decision-making bodies.

In a speech on the second day of a UN summit on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Iranian leader blamed capitalism and transnational corporations for "the suffering of countless women, men and children in so many countries."

Ahmadinejad's speech to the 192-member General Assembly did not mention the MDGs, the UN targets set by world leaders in 2000 to combat global poverty by 2015, that are the focus of the three-day summit called by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to spur their implementation.

Ahmadinejad said world leaders, thinkers and global reformers should "spare no effort" in making "practical plans" for a new world order that would reform international economic and political institutions.

To spotlight the importance of this effort and the need for all countries to participate, Ahmadinejad proposed that the United Nations name the coming ten years "the decade for joint global governance."

In his brief speech, intertwining philosophy and religion with the current state of the world, Ahmadinejad declared: "The undemocratic and unjust governance structures of the decision-making bodies, regarding international economic and political issues, are the roots of the problems humanity is confronting today."