At the Talkfest Summit

Coiffed and crisp, the 75 heads of state and 36 heads of government who came are trailed by security guards with plastic coils hanging out of their ears. At one point, reporters managed to corner Zimbabwe8217;s Robert Mugabe in a hallway, where the BBC8217;s UN correspondent asked if he8217;d be back next year. 8220;What, are you a witch?8221; the 84-year-old president shot back. 8220;Of course I8217;ll be back, why not?8221; he added with a chuckle, before turning to questions about a power-sharing deal with his longtime rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.

No matter the size of the entourage, no matter the ability to bring peace or wreak havoc, all the world8217;s leaders are equalised by decorum as they take to the podium for the General Assembly8217;s annual debate.

Taro Aso had been Prime Minister of Japan for less than 24 hours when it was his turn. When the equipment used to provide simultaneous translation malfunctioned, Aso showed no signs of stage fright. 8220;It8217;s not a Japanese machine8230;?8221; he joked in English.

In his opening address, Ban set the theme: How to rescue a lagging UN anti-poverty programme from oil and food price shocks and meet its goal of lifting half the world8217;s 8220;bottom billion8221; out of poverty by 2015.

But of all the crises, the most preoccupying was the one unfolding on Wall Street just a few miles away. Friends and foes of America, accustomed to being lectured, are giving it back. 8220;Fabulous fortunes cannot be wasted while millions are starving and dying of curable diseases,8221; Cuba8217;s First Vice President Jose Ramon Machado Ventura declared.

UN technicians laid about 1,300 miles of television cable around the complex to ensure the talkfest could be broadcast to every country in the world. And so a sheik declares his government8217;s agenda to improve the lot of women, and the president of a small island complains that his country isn8217;t profiting enough from the sale of tuna fished from its waters.

While the speeches are the most visible part of the annual gathering, they obscure the real business8212;a flurry of diplomacy at meetings, cocktail parties, seminars and dinners.

One morning, a low-level minister from Africa, who asked not to be identified, was arguing with other African delegates about how to schedule a meeting on aid to rural women. By dinner, she was listening to glamorous first ladies from France and Jordan and the wife of media baron Rupert Murdoch hold forth on maternal mortality.

The Bush administration failed to gain agreement on its priority8212;new sanctions to press Iran to stop its nuclear programme. But other agreements have emerged from leaders talking quietly.

Asif Ali Zardari, who was sworn in as President of Pakistan just 15 days before flying to New York, spent 30 minutes in a midtown Manhattan hotel suite with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Their meeting also produced a photo of them smiling, while giving each other a bear hug.

Delegates from smaller countries that didn8217;t want to pay for expensive hotel suites booked tiny cubicles adjacent to the domed General Assembly chamber, each with its own Oriental rug and red leatherette chairs, to sort out their problems.