United Nations ? The United Nations faces an unprecedented demand for peacekeeping troops and growing demands to help prevent conflicts and rebuild war-battered countries, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday in his first speech to the U.N. Security Council.

The council and the United Nations “are going through one of the busiest periods in our history,” with 18 peacekeeping missions and 100,000 personnel currently in the field “and climbing,” Ban said. The U.N. is engaged in some way in a total of 30 peace operations around the world, he said.

“I will make it my priority to strengthen the U.N.’s ability to play its role to the fullest extent in conflict prevention, peacemaking, peacekeeping and peacebuilding,” Ban said.

A week after taking the reins of the world body, the new secretary-general addressed a council meeting on the threats to global peace and security that the world faces in 2007 – singling out conflicts in Africa, the Middle East and Kosovo, and threats from terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, HIV/AIDS, extreme poverty and human rights violations.

Acting U.S. Ambassador Alejandro Wolff told the council that “only last week al-Qaida issued an explicit threat against the United Nations and its peacekeepers overseas.”

“We know that terrorists still work to kill innocent civilians around the world, and this body has a responsibility to meet these threats with unity of purpose and clear resolve,” he said.

Ban echoed leaders of the 192 U.N. member states who stated at the 2005 World Summit that the threats the world faces in the 21st century “are multi-faceted and interconnected.”

He said the role of the United Nations in tackling them “must be coordinated, comprehensive and consistent.”

He said he was gratified to hear the 15 council members speaking “with one voice” on the need to deal with global threats “in a holistic manner.”

Ban reiterated that one of his top priorities will be to step up efforts to address the crisis in Sudan’s conflict-wracked Darfur region, “where the humanitarian situation is growing worse.” He said he will work through his special envoy for Darfur, Jan Eliasson, in the coming days and weeks to engage Sudan, African governments and the international community to resolve the nearly four-year conflict that has killed more than 200,000 people and displaced 2.5 million.

At the same time, Ban said, the United Nations must consolidate recent positive developments in Congo – which hosts the largest U.N. peacekeeping operation, with over 17,000 troops – “so that lasting peace and stability take hold in the heart of Africa.”

Both Sudan and Congo will be on his agenda when he attends the African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Jan. 29-30, he said.