This is Secretary General Kofi Annan's message for delegates, secretariat staff and everyone else working with the Organization as member states are again warned that the 50-year-old New York headquarters campus is "seriously deficient in safety, fire and building codes, energy efficiency and security requirements."

Even "the most efficient and effective" maintenance would not be enough to repair the cumulative effects of wear and tear on the fabric. A policy followed in recent years of make do and mend "would become excessively expensive as the building aged further," he writes in a new document aimed at getting some action after two years of shilly shallying over a major rebuilding proposal.

Inevitably, delaying a decision on refurbishing the crumbling, asbestos-contaminated, fire-prone structure has proved costly.

He estimates that a rebuilding bill now will come in at up to $1.7 billion, as against under $1 billion when his first master plan was presented to member states.

Manhattanites may be sore at the UN for complicating their lives through traffic disruptions and other inconveniences when VIPs are in town for meetings like the recent high-level segment of the General Assembly, but the New York City government is conscious of the importance of being the Organization's host and has already offered to help in the headquarters transition.

The UN Development Corporation, a city and state agency, would approve construction of a 35-story office tower at the south end of 42nd Street on what is now an urban playground. Estimated to cost $325 million, this would accommodate staff and delegates while the major rebuilding project was under way in a six-year refurbishment program. Nothing has been finalized, but Annan's report indicates optimism that the project will get the official nod.

The Secretary General was working toward a Jan. 2003 start on refurbishing when the first plan was issued in 2000.

Now he speaks of a projected starting date of Oct. 2004.

Warning members of the consequences of further delay or of being tempted to settle for patch-up measures in what he terms "the reactive approach," he says that an updated cost of going that route over the period 2005-2029 is $2.088 billion, a $444 million increase over an earlier estimate.

Emergency repairs, major construction and energy costs would increase progressively to a high of $116 million in 2019 under the reactive approach, compared to less than $30 million a year, including for energy, at present, Annan states.

When the World Trade Center was bombed in 1993, FBI and other governmental investigators found that the UN also was a potential target of terrorists. The Secretary General now says that the need to enhance security after the Sept. 11 attacks and in light of "subsequent anthrax and other biological and chemical contamination threats" would add $55 million to an earlier cost forecast of $22 million.

Also, he warns that if member states delay a decision on refurbishing, the ultimate bill will rise at the rate of $35 million to $40 million.