NEW YORK, JUL 11 (ZENIT).- "U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan has cast a shadow over World Population Day," said World Life League director Mark DeYoung. 

In a speech calling for sexual and reproductive rights, Annan said that with the world's population at six billion, "it is more obvious than ever before that humanity needs to stabilize its numbers."

In contrast to Annan, the U.N.'s own experts from the Population Division recently published "Replacement Migration: Is it a Solution to Declining and Aging Populations?" which examines the population shortage in many countries. This report states that nearly half the countries of the world have a serious population
problem -- too few babies.

"Nearly half the countries in the world are now beginning to deal with large scale economic and social problems associated with plummeting populations," DeYoung added. "This is the fact that the secretary general is unwilling to admit, even despite information provided from his own U.N. agencies."

According to World Life League researcher Robert L. Sassone, "too few babies yesterday became too few young workers today. Since the old workers will soon become too old to work, we will soon have the massive problem of too many elderly dependent people who have to be supported by too few workers."

DeYoung added, "the only effective solutions to the world's population are pro-natal; namely those which would encourage women to have more children. Mr. Annan's misleading comments make it painfully clear that despite the facts, the U.N. as a whole is committed to an anti-life, pro-birth control, pro-population
control, pro-death agenda that involves more contraception and fewer people -- no matter how destructive."