World leaders converge here Tuesday for their annual UN summit in an atmosphere clouded by lingering US-Russian tensions over Georgia and global economic woes that threaten to further set back the fight against poverty.
More than 120 heads of state or government are to attend the week-long general debate of the UN General Assembly's 63rd session to tackle issues that include the crisis in Georgia, Iran's nuclear quest, food security, Darfur genocide charges against Sudan's president, Middle East peace and Kosovo independence.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon will open the assembly debate proper Tuesday, but all eyes will be that day on George W. Bush, who will address the Assembly for the last time as US president.
Bush is expected to urge Russia to honor its commitment to fully withdraw its troops from Georgia. French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating European Union presidency and who brokered the Georgia-Russia truce deal, will speak shortly afterward.
The fallout from Russia's rout of Georgian forces in the breakaway enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia in August will also figure in bilateral meetings between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Western leaders.
Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili himself is to take the floor Tuesday afternoon and appeal for support in his country's conflict with Russia.
Saakashvili is at loggerheads with Russia after last month's brief war over the Moscow-backed rebel region of South Ossetia, and Moscow's recognition of the two Georgian rebel regions as independent.
Another hot issue will be Iran's dogged refusal to comply with UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment, seen by the West as a cover to obtain nuclear weapons.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday will deliver his UN speech in which he is expected to defend his country's right to pursue uranium enrichment.
Foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are to meet on Thursday on the sidelines of the debate to weigh prospects for a fourth round of UN sanctions against Iran for its nuclear defiance.
Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Belgrade last February is also on the assembly's agenda.
Serbia has said it will submit a draft resolution at the Assembly session demanding an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on whether the move "is in accordance with international law."