UN faces shake-up with 1,000 jobs to go

Sweeping reforms of the United Nations, including big cuts in its budget and staff, will be announced tomorrow by its new Secretary General, Kofi Annan.

One thousand jobs are planned to go next year, and its budget is to be cut by $123m (pounds 77m) over the next two years. Administrative costs will have to be slashed by a third over the next four years and the amount of paperwork is to be cut by a quarter. Layers of management are to be reduced.

All staff will have to adhere to a new code of conduct requiring "the highest standards of efficiency, competence, independence and integrity". UN agencies will have to work together more closely to avoid duplication, and will be encouraged to use common offices and facilities in the field.

Mr Annan has moved remarkably fast, within three months of taking office, to initiate change in the slow-moving institution, but tomorrow's announcement is just the first step in a wholesale streamlining and reorganisation of the UN. He will pledge tomorrow: "Reform is a process, not an event."