United Nations ? Secretary-General Kofi Annan launched a high-level diplomatic offensive Monday to get feuding nations to unite behind a plan to stabilize Iraq and said the United Nations was prepared to play a major political role to restore its sovereignty.

Annan met late Monday with ambassadors from the Security Council and planned to meet Saturday in Geneva with foreign ministers from the five veto-wielding council nations — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France. He said he also has been talking to officials in many countries and plans to engage Mideast leaders and Iraq’s neighbors.

Earlier Monday, Annan urged leaders of the 191 U.N. member states to come up with radically new ideas to deal with wars, terrorism, poverty and other threats to international security.

In a new report, he urged members to unite behind a new global agenda and agree on threats to global peace and security and how to tackle them.

“Events have shaken the international system,” Annan said. “We all agree that there are new threats, or rather that old challenges have resurfaced in new and more virulent forms. But we don’t seem to agree what exactly they are, or how to respond, or even whether the response should be a collective one.”