The text of the articles remained substantially the same as that adopted in 2002, with the exception of some rearrangement between paragraphs.

Mr. Abdelaziz (Egypt) My delegation too wishes to make some general remarks at this stage, pending detailed discussion of the Chairman s proposed rearrangement of the agenda for the First Committee.

Derived classifications may be prepared either by adopting the reference classification structure and categories and then possibly providing additional detail beyond that provided by the reference classification, or they may be prepared through the rearrangement or aggregation of items from one or more reference classifications.

At its 1993 special session the First Committee issued a paper (A C.1 47 15) on the rearrangement of agenda items, with thematic clustering, which was submitted to the Committee by the representative of Denmark on behalf of the European Community and its member States.

It is my sincere hope that the internal rearrangement of the Decolonization Unit in a new Department within the Organization will not be reflective of the attempt by administering Powers to undermine the letter and spirit of General Assembly resolution 43 47 of 1988, which called for an end to colonialism by the end of the decade.

We will therefore send these documents to our authorities so that they can be looked at more closely. We would like to ask the Chairman for the opportunity to come back with more detailed and developed comments so that we can, as national delegations, express our concerns on all the points and on the rearrangement as a whole.

Draft resolutions under agenda item 80, Rationalization of the work and reform of the agenda of the First Committee , are due by 6 p.m. tomorrow. In connection with these draft resolutions, I would like to point out that this later deadline will not apply to any eventual decision that the Chairman might propose regarding the rearrangement of agenda items.

As to the Chairman s non paper that I circulated on 22 October on the rearrangement of agenda items, I propose that the Committee meet informally on Thursday, 29 October, following the adjournment of its formal afternoon meeting. I expect comments on three subjects whether there should be titles of headings their wording and the agenda items under the headings. General Assembly 16th meeting

During two meetings, delegations exchanged their views on this item and a number of proposals were put forward. Unfortunately, no consensus could be reached on proposals for the rearrangement of agenda items and the number of meetings. Nevertheless, the Chairman has been entrusted with conducting further consultations in this regard and with reporting to the General Assembly at the beginning of its next session.

Other areas worthy of exploration are the useful device of clustering draft resolutions at their stage of consideration and merging the thematic debate with this deferral of some issues if political developments warrant and merging and consolidation of resolutions dealing with similar issues. Such rearrangement should aim at providing a clearer organization and presentation of issues to be considered by the Committee, without prejudging their substance.

On behalf of the Committee, and on my own behalf, I wish to thank Mozambique for that decision and to assure it of our support for the success of this very symbolic conference. There are no further speakers for this meeting. Before adjourning I remind members that last week we distributed a draft rearrangement of the Committee s agenda. We intend to hold the first meeting on this matter on Thursday morning at 11 a.m.