Come, come, we are ready to greet you. - Women's choir at sunrise on Millennium Island, a tiny and usually uninhabited atoll previously known as Caroline in the South Pacific Kiribati's Line Islands.

We close the century with most people still languishing in poverty, subjected to hunger, preventable disease, illiteracy and insufficient shelter. - Nelson Mandela.

The sun will always rise on America as long as each new generation lights the fire of freedom. Our children are ready and so again the torch is passed to a new century of young Americans. - Bill Clinton.

It was a mixture of Star Wars and Islam. They managed to mix the Orient with the West. - Erdal Zorsuker, a young Turk who lives in Germany, on the festivi- ties in Cairo.

Success (stop) . . . Inform press (stop). - US Federal Aviation Administration message faxed to President Clinton re non-effects of the Y2K bug.

There are no failures, everything is working. - Officer at Russia's main nuclear missile command bunker shortly after midnight, January 1st.

Y2K makes no difference in Nigeria. We do not normally have light or water so if we do now then it must be a bonus. - Ayodele Adewale, celebrating in Lagos.

More people - more fun. - Student Zlatka Petrova (22), who travelled from Gocedelchev, Bulgaria, to join revellers in New York's Times Square.

Should the Messiah come tonight I won't have to go back. - Reformed alcoholic Alistair McKinnon on pilgrimage from Scotland to Jerusalem.

There is peace and harmony everywhere. - Berlin police spokesman Matthias Pranger.

Devil worship at the millennium party profanes the sanctity of Ramadan. - Egypt's Islamist newspaper Al-Shaab.

This is a lousy New Year's Eve celebration. In fact, it's the worst I've ever been to. I just hope we will be able to avoid another war. - Yugoslav reveller disappointed by small turnout at government- sponsored celebration in central Belgrade.

It has not been rare that the conquests of technology and science, so important for genuine human progress, have been used against man. - Pope John Paul.

I am feeling on top of the world. - Indian Airlines pilot Devi Sharan, released by hijackers after a week as a hostage.

Throughout the entire country people have entered into the spirit of the occasion, while at the same time recognising its historical significance and the strong Christian link. - Seamus Brennan.

As this millennium draws to a close, it is heartening to consider the prospect of lasting peace in Northern Ireland. - Bertie Ahern.