Mr. Chairman,

I have the honour to speak on behalf of the Group of 77 and China.

I would like to thank the Controller for introducing the report of the Secretary-General A/60/537 and the Chairman of the ACABQ for presenting the report of the Advisory Committee A/60/7/Add.13.

The Group appreciates the information provided by the Secretary-General on the revised estimates to the proposed programme budget for the biennium 2006-2007. We

also wish to take this opportunity to commend the Advisory Committee for the fine work done in preparing its report on such short notice.

We share the concerns expressed by the ACABQ regarding the pressure of time and the danger of not giving proper consideration to the proposals, and in this regard we note in particular the comments in paragraph 7 of the ACABQ report that the document is not totally coherent.

The Group reaffirms the importance it attaches to the early consideration of the follow-up to the 2005 Summit outcome document in accordance with the mandates established by the Summit. We note with concern that some of the proposals of the Secretary-General address issues that are not in the outcome document and relate to older existing mandates. The Group of 77 and China would wish to make it clear that we intend to examine only those proposals that are related to the Summit outcome.

Mr. Chairman,

With regard to the treatment of the revised estimates, we note that there are two options contained in the ACABQ report. One option is to abide strictly by the rules and regulations with regard to the contingency fund. The second option is a one-time exception outside the contingency fund as a supplementary budget. In this regard, the Group believes that the expenditures on the revised budget are not part of the budget itself but should be viewed as a supplementary budget.

With regard to the letter from the President of the General Assembly addressed to the Chairman of the Fifth Committee (A/C.5/60/19), the Group expresses its willingness to achieve the deadline of 19 December requested by the President of the General Assembly for completing deliberations on the Secretary-General’s proposals in the Fifth Committee. In this regard, we wish to reiterate the Group’s position expressed earlier requesting conference services for night and weekend meetings for this purpose. The Group is ready to conclude the work of the Fifth Committee during this session, including the budget. The Group believes that the only way to achieve this deadline is to have additional conference services.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.