WORLD AGENDA MAY 2006

Undated, Kabul: Britain will take command of NatoÕs multi-national mission in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops.

Undated, China: The Three Gorges Dam, the worldÕs largest at 185m high, is expected to be completed nine months ahead of schedule. The project is seen by supporters as a symbol of ChinaÕs economic change but critics predict an environmental disaster

May 3, New York: One of Pablo Picasso's major portraits of his mistress Dora Maar is expect to fetch $50m when it goes under the hammer at SothebyÕs, which would make ÒDora Maar With CatÓ, painted in 1941, one of the 10 most expensive paintings ever sold.

May 9, Geneva: Elections will be held to choose the first members of the UNÕs new Human Rights Council. The council, which replaces the much-criticised Human Rights Commission, is expected to begin work in June on improving the rights and freedoms of millions of people worldwide.

May 12, Rome: ItalyÕs parliament will meet to elect a successor to President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, whose seven-year term of office ends on May 18. Some had hoped that given the countryÕs political volatility, the popular 85-year-old president would stay at the helm for a second term.

May 13, Cardiff: The 125th FA Cup Final at the Millennium Stadium sees Liverpool and West Ham going head to head for the most coveted trophy in British soccer. It will be West HamÕs first cup final since 1980.

May 14, Port-au-Prince: Rene Preval, who was elected president of Haiti in February, will be officially sworn in to begin the enormous task of building peace and raising living standards in the poorest country in the Americas.

May 15, Brussels: An alliance of six oil-rich Gulf states, known as the Gulf Cooperation Council and comprising Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, is finally expected to sign a free trade agreement with the European Union after almost 20 years of on-off negotiations.

May 17, Cannes: The Da Vinci Code, the keenly anticipated movie adaptation of Dan BrownÕs best-selling but controversial novel, will open the 59th Cannes Film Festival before going on worldwide release on May 19.

May 21, Montenegro: The people will vote in a referendum to decide whether to break away from Serbia. The loose union of Serbia and Montenegro is all that survives from the federation of six republics that made up Yugoslavia before the wars of the 1990s but the Montenegrin government is firmly pro-independence.

May 23, Addis Ababa: A verdict is expected in the genocide trial of Ethiopia's former dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam. The exiled ruler, who now lives in Zimbabwe, has been tried in absentia for thousands of deaths during the Òred terrorÓ, a campaign aimed at crushing insurgents.

May 20, Athens: Greece hosts the much-mocked but ever-popular Eurovision Song Contest as it celebrates its 50th anniversary. Thirty-seven countries will be represented in the competition at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Athens, watched by an estimated TV audience of more than 100 million.

May 24, Nairobi: Kamlesh Pattni, former director of export firm Goldenberg International, stands trial in Nairobi charged with conspiracy to defraud the government and the theft of $80m in Kenya's biggest ever corruption case. The 1990s Goldenberg scandal involved the payment of huge sums of public money for bogus exports of gold and diamonds by his firm.

Plus: Parliamentary elections in Fiji, May 6; Singapore, May 6; Cyprus, May 21. Presidential elections in Chad, May 3; Comoros, final round, May 14; Colombia, May 28.