In a 13 January letter to the UN Security Council (http://daccess-ods.un.org/TMP/2834276.html), UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed concern that minimal progress toward resolving the Abkhaz conflict has been made over the past six months. Annan announced that he will convene a \"brainstorming session\" of the five \"friends of the secretary-general\" countries soon to consider how to break the deadlock. Annan also called for the resumption of meetings of the UN-sponsored Coordinating Council that promotes confidence-building measures and for the extension for a further six months of the mandate of the UN Observer Force. Russian and Georgian news-agency reports on 21 January quoted Annan at a press conference the previous day as describing the Abkhaz as obstructing the investigation into the shooting down over the Kodori Gorge in October 2001 of a UN-chartered, Ukrainian-owned helicopter. Nine people died in that crash. Abkhaz Defense Minister Raul Khadjimba told journalists in Sukhum on 21 January that the Abkhaz authorities have never prevented UN or Ukrainian officials from inspecting the crash site, although they refused to allow a Georgian team to do so. (RFE/RL)