THE US: The US Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, has identified sustainable development as vital for delivering a more stable world, describing it as a "security imperative".
In a special edition of the United Nations Environment Programme's "Our Planet" magazine, Mr Powell says sustainable development has also become a "compelling moral and humanitarian issue".
Copies of the magazine are be given to world leaders attending the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg later this month - billed as the second "Earth Summit".
"Poverty, environmental degradation and despair are destroyers - of people, of societies, of nations. This unholy trinity can destabilise countries, even entire regions," according to the US Secretary of State.
The spread of democracy, technology and the market economy "permits us to dream of a day when, for the first time in history, most of humanity will be free of the ravages of tyranny and poverty."
Mr Powell is regarded as a moderate in the Bush administration.
