UN chief to share concerns with Congress
         
John Heilprin, Associated Press Writer – Wed Mar 11, 3:37 am ET

WASHINGTON – Buoyed by President Barack Obama's pledge to work on bringing peace to Darfur, the U.N. chief is making the rounds of Capitol Hill to strengthen cooperation on climate change and other pressing global crises.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to meet with Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., the House Foreign Relations chairman, Wednesday morning and with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in the afternoon.

Climate change was expected to dominate Ban's meetings. There also has been interest on the Hill about Sudan and the way the United Nations conducts its investigation into Israel's bombing of a U.N. compound in Gaza City.

Ban, who became secretary-general in January 2007, accepted Obama's invitation for an Oval Office meeting Tuesday. At the meeting, Obama declared that the violence in Darfur and inaction in the face of its worsening humanitarian crisis are "not acceptable." The president pledged to work more closely with the United Nations to bring peace to western Sudan's conflict-wracked region.

His comments were the strongest to date on the situation in Darfur since Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir kicked out 13 aid groups after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity.