UN’s Olympic torch peace plea

The Olympic torch came to the United Nations for the first time and the world body sent it on its global journey with an appeal for a halt to all fighting during the summer games and a silent prayer for lasting peace.

At dusk on Saturday, near the end of a daylong journey through New York City, 18-year-old Toni Jones whose life has been deeply affected by conflict carried the torch into the United Nations complex and handed it to Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who lit a cauldron to keep the flame alive.

At a "difficult and troubling" time for the world, Annan said it was even more important that people everywhere join forces "to give life" to the ideals that the United Nations and the Olympic movement share - tolerance and understanding, equality and justice, and above all, peace.

In November, the UN General Assembly unanimously adopted a resolution calling for an Olympic Truce during the Athens games which start on August 13, and Annan said the best way to support the UN and Olympic ideals is to ensure that there is a worldwide halt to fighting.

The "Olympic Truce" resolution is adopted every four years when the games are held.

"Tonight, I call on all those engaged in armed conflict of any kind to observe the Olympic Truce, and to use that opportunity to promote peace, dialogue and reconciliation," Annan said.

Julian Hunte, the president of the General Assembly, also called for "a time out from conflict, violence and war."

"When we do so, we allow ourselves to stop and contemplate our world, not as it is, but as it ought to be - the global village, fully in accord with the goals and objectives of the United Nations Charter," he said.

The ceremony outside the UN Secretariat building was attended by about 1,000 UN staff members, diplomats and a host of dignitaries including New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who welcomed the torch "to one of our greatest landmarks."

Stavros Lambrinidis, the director of the International Olympic Truce Centre, said that "above all, the Olympic Games are a time of peace for people of all cultures, religious and ethnic backgrounds."

"Sport will not impose peace, but it might inspire it, and if we can have peace for 16 days, then maybe, just maybe, we can have it forever," he said.

At the end of his speech, the flag of the Olympic Truce was raised and Lambrinidis asked the audience - which had been given candle-shaped lights - to turn them on as a choir sang the Olympic hymn.

The roots of both the truce and the Olympics itself go back to the 8th century BC. The truce idea was revived in 1993 to allow athletes from Yugoslavia to participate in the 1994 games, and the latest General Assembly resolution was the seventh adopted since then.

Fanny Palli-Petralia, the deputy Greek culture minister coordinating Olympic preparations, called the original Olympic Truce "man’s first attempt in history to apply peace between nations."

It was also "the ancient predecessor of the United Nations’ peacemaking role," she said. (AAP)