New York, US - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has set up a high-level Millennium Development Group (MDG) Advocacy Group, comprising 17 current and former political leaders, business people and thinkers from around the world to galvanise support for achieving the goals.

Ban named Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero as co-chairs of the group.

In a statement on Thursday, obtained by the Pan African News Agency (PANA), the UN said the group would host its first meeting next month, two months before the world's leaders gather at the UN headquarters in New York for a high-level summit aimed at accelerating progress towards the MDGs.

It said the secretary-general decided to appoint the 'eminent personalities' for their outstanding support and leadership role in promoting the implementation of the MDGs.

It said members of the group included Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh, former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, CNN founder Ted Turner and Jeffrey Sachs of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, US.

The statement also said other "distinguished" personalities from China, India, Japan, Nigeria and Britain would join the panel.

It quoted the secretary-general as saying that the group would support him in building political will and mobilizing global action to make the forthcoming September MDGs Summit a turning point in the collective effort to achieve the goals by 2015.

PANA reported that the summit is coming 10 years after world leaders adopted the eight key development goals aimed at reducing extreme poverty by 2015.