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On the morning of September 20 (Japan time: night of September 20), Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi on his visit to the United States of America visited the former site of the World Trade Center in New York City which was a target of the simultaneous terrorist attacks on September 11 three years ago. There, Prime Minister Koizumi offered flowers and prayed for the repose of the souls of the victims of these attacks. Minister Koizumi then met with Japanese officials working at the UN and its related international organizations, gave them his words of encouragement, and further expressed his intention to endeavor in efforts to increase the number of Japanese officials working at the UN. In the afternoon (Japan time: dawn of September 21), Prime Minister Koizumi visited the Headquarters of the United Nations (UN) and held a meeting with Mr. Jean Ping, Minister of State, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Cooperation and la Francophonie of the Gabonese Republic and President of the 59th session of the UN General Assembly. During the meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi said, "The reform of the UN is reaching an extremely crucial stage in time. The world is watching how the UN will adapt to the new age." In response, President Ping shared his understanding towards Japan's stance in its efforts for UN reform and expressed his wish to realize the reform during his one-year term. Prime In the evening (Japan time: morning of September 21), Prime Minister Koizumi held a meeting with Mr. Hamid Karzai, the President of the Transitional Administration of Afghanistan. During this meeting, Prime Minister Koizumi indicated his expectation that "the presidential election scheduled for this October should take place in a fair and democratic nature." He also expressed his intention for the Japanese Government to dispatch a mission of election observers to the presidential election of Afghanistan. Prime Minister Koizumi then held a meeting with Mr. Ayad Allawi, the Prime Minister of the Interim Government of the Republic of Iraq. Prime Minister Allawi noted that he highly evaluates the activities of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces in Iraq and requested Prime Minister Koizumi to continue their assistance. In response, Prime Minister Koizumi expressed his intention to continue assistance by saying, "Although Japan will not participate in security activities, we will exert our utmost efforts in reconstruction assistance."