UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged world leaders to use the UN “to its fullest” in the current globalizing world.

“The UN is the right place to determine complex matters,” the UN chief said during a press briefing here on Monday.

The secretary-general pointed out that “the world is not only changing, but changing rapidly,” and that “new issues have come to the fore — epic challenges of tremendous consequence for peace and human welfare, complex matters that ignore borders.”

He called for global institutions to be “more nimble and effective.”

“This is a test for all of us. We need to adapt. We need stronger alliances,” Ban said.

He said that he is determined to see the UN meet this test.

Answering a question on how realistic it is to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by 2015 and how the UN deals with skepticism, he said: “We are running against time, but if we have a right mix of political will and political priority and resources, then we can achieve it.”

The UN chief said that he had seen great progress and pointed out that it is a very positive prospect that so many heads of states are coming to participate in the MDGs summit to be held here from Sept. 20 through Sept. 22.