Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan tonight called a UN General Assembly special session on AIDS a truly historic event whose final declaration set out a clear global strategy for fighting AIDS.
What is important is that after today, we shall have a document setting out a clear battle plan for the war against HIV/AIDS with clear goals and a clear timeline, he told a news conference on the special session's final day.
"It is a blueprint from which the whole of humanity can work, in building a global response toa truly global challenge", he said.
The three-day special session marked the first time the 189-nation General Assembly had focused on a single disease.
Mr Annan, speaking to reporters just hours after the 15-nation UN Security Council approved him for a second five-year term as secretary-general, played down efforts by Islamic nations to exclude an official of a gay rights group from speaking at the conference and to tone down parts of the final declaration.
Phrases dealing with a woman's right to control her sex life and the vulnerability of homosexuals and prostitutes to AIDS were diluted after Muslim delegates argued the language offended cultural and religious sensitivities.
Mr Annan also said he was pleased by the initial response to his proposal for a war chest to combat AIDS in poor countries, and said he hoped the fund would be up and running by the end of the year.
As of the end of the session, total pledges to the fund stood at just over $700 million although, in unveiling the idea for the fund in Nigeria on April 26, Mr Annan said an additional $£7 billion to $10 billion a year was needed.
Nonetheless, he said he was gratified by the strong and widespread support shown for the plan.