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UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - The UN General Assembly on Wednesday reaffirmed the importance of promoting multilingualism, urging that equal treatment be given to the six official languages of the world body.

The 192-member body adopted by consensus a resolution sponsored by 113 countries that "emphasizes the paramount importance of the equality of the six official languages of the United Nations."

It calls for the "appropriate use" of all the official languages of the UN in all its public information activities so as to eliminate "the disparity between the use of English and the five other official languages".

The other five are French, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Arabic. English and French are also working languages of the UN Secretariat.

The resolution calls on UN chief Ban Ki-moon "to ensure that all languages services are given equal treatment and are provided with equally favorable working conditions and resources, with a view to achieving maximum quality of their services."

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, whose country was among the co-sponsors, hailed adoption of the text, saying that "multilingualism is the linguistic, cultural and even civilizational equivalent of multilateralism."

"The right to use one's language, the capacity to communicate and therefore to understand and be understood, the preservation of a heritage that is often several centuries or millennia old must be at the heart of the United Nations mission," he added.

"So it is essential that we mobilize to give life to the principle of multilingualism within and outside the United Nations."

The resolution also notes the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (UNESCO) proclamation of 2008 as International Year.

And it renews a request to Ban to complete the task of uploading all important older UN documents onto the world body's website in all six official languages.