UNITED NATIONS, Dec 11: With 385 days to go until January 1, 2000, a UN conference on Friday was to tackle the so-called "Year 2000 bug." a problem that could threaten every country's computer systems — and the global economy that depends on them, reports AP.

More than 200 representatives from at least 120 memberstates were to convene at the global body's New York headquarters in a closed meeting to identify the crisis points in solving the computer problem and discuss contingency plans post-Y2K.

"This meeting has a single agenda. It is Y2K," said Ahmad Kamal, the Pakistan ambas-satior at the United Nations and chairman of the UN Economic and Social Council's Working Group on Informatics.

Y2K is shorthand for the Year 2000 problem, which oc-

curs because some programmes, especially older ones, may fail when the date changes to 2000. Because they were written to recognize only the last two digits of a year, such programmes could read the digits "00" as 1900 instead of 2000.

Assessments of what might happen very wildly, especially in developing countries. They don't use as much sophisticated technology, but the technology that is used often is older and relies on software that cannot been updated. In the developed world, the sheer number of computer systems needing to be checked and corrected is the main obstacle.

Aircraft control, telecommunications. electrical power, financial services and governmental functions are all at risk from the bug. And some economists worry that world

financial markets — not fully recovered from the current financial crisis hitting Asia and other parts of the globe — could become even more unstable.

The conference will focus on determining how quickly countries are upgrading their computer systems, monitoring the upgrade process and planning for the inevitable failures.

Capers Jones, chief scientist at Software Productivity Research Inc. in Burlington. Massachusetts. a well-respected Y2K expert, said he didn’t expect much from the conference.

"1 don't think anyone at the UN knows much about the problem." he said. "And they'll probably gloss it over."

. Jones expects that 15 per cent of the problems won't be solved in time in the United States. In Europe, he expects a failure rate of 25 per cent and 35

per cent everywhere else.

"It's going to be an uncomfortable three months." he said, predicting widescale phone outages, electrical disruptions and roiled financial markets. People in a position to address the firoblem, he said, waited too ong and now governments must prepare for rough going in early 2000.

There will be problems." Kamal acknowledged, "and-that is the reason for contingency plans."

But flanked by representatives from nine member-states, Kamal appealed for all countries to work together, calling for an international spirit of we-can-do-it-together-ness.

"This is a working group before you," agreed John A. Koskinen. Chairman of the United States' presidential council on the Y2K bug. "We all know the

challenge is not one of any single country itself, and all of us are dependent on each other."

Representatives from Bulgaria, the Netherlands, South Africa, Chile, the Philippines, Mexico and South Korea also attended the press briefing.

Reflecting the potential for wide-ranging disruption. Y2K experts from the World Bank, the International Telecommunications Union, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the Joint Year 2000 Council and the International Technology Association of America also will attend Friday’s conference.

But is it too little, too late to 6revent a global hangover on ew Year's Day 2000?

"We have a year and a few days." said Kamal. "Let us try to do the maximum that we can."