DHAKA: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Saturday morning left for New York to attend the 65th UN General Assembly and several other meets with world leaders.

A special flight of Bangladesh Biman carrying the PM took off from Shahjalal International Airport at about 8:30 am.

Sheikh Hasina is expected to reach Belgian capital Brussels at local time 1:45pm. After night halt there, she will leave for New York at 11am Sunday. On landing at John F Kennedy Airport in the US city at about 2 pm local time, the Bangladesh premier will go to the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

Present at the airport were senior cabinet members, chiefs of the three services, members of the diplomatic corps and high officials to see her off.  

Sheikh Hasina will address the United Nations General Assembly on September 27. She will also attend several seminars and meetings on the Millennium Development Goals during her stay in the USA.

The premier’s official entourage includes Finance Minister AMA Muhith, Planning Minister AK Khandaker, Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni and Health Minister Dr AFM Ruhal Haque.

Bangladesh would organize a conference on climate change with the heads of state and government of South Asian countries on the sidelines of the UN assembly.

The premier, in her speech, would seek more international financial aid from the international community to face the challenges of climate change.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will address the general assembly of the United Nations in Bengali. This is going to be her second speech in mother tongue in the global forum. In the 2009 assembly Hasina also spoke in Bangla.

In 1974, her father, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, delivered speech in Bangla in the General Assembly of the United Nations for the first time.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to return home on September 29.

BDST: 1144 HRS, SEPT 18, 2010