71.   Chirac made the call in a speech opening the conference on Monday morning.

72.   Commonwealth secretary general Chief Emeka Anyaoku is scheduled to open the conference with Canadian Health Minister Diane Marleau on Sunday.

73.   Earlier, Italian Foreign Minister Lamberto Dini opened the conference by calling for similar measures.

74.   Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will open the conference, becoming the only head of state to address the meeting.

75.   Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, opening a conference on AIDS in Africa, called Sunday for politicians to take the lead in fighting the killer disease.

76.   UN chief Kofi Annan opened the conference with an appeal for more nations to join and ratify the treaty.

77.   UN chief Kofi Annan opened a conference of signatories of the international treaty banning chemical arms with an appeal for more countries to ratify the charter.

78.   King Hussein of Jordan opened a conference of Arab and African MPs Monday with a call to fight poverty, armed conflicts and the absence of democracy.

79.   Mandela would open the conference, Naidoo said.

80.   Mozambican Foreign Minister Leonardo Simao called for a combined regional effort to combat malaria as he opened a conference on the killer illness in Maputo Monday.