A/RES/54/248 Page 4 three sessions, with a view to making appropriate recommendations in order to achieve the optimum utilization of conference-servicing resources; 7. Requests the Chairperson of the Committee on Conferences to transmit a letter to the chairpersons of all bodies that utilized less than the applicable benchmark figure (80 per cent) of their allocated conference resources in the previous year, informing them of the problem and drawing their attention to the significant loss of meeting time, with a view to encouraging appropriate action on their part so as to improve the utilization of conference-servicing resources; 8. Notes the importance of meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States for the smooth functioning of sessional bodies, in view of the increased requests for meetings of regional and other major groups, and welcomes the fact that 83 per cent of the requests for interpretation services for such meetings were met, while 100 per cent of the requests for facilities only were met; 9. Notes with concern the difficulties experienced by some Member States owing to the lack of conference services for some meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States; 10. Regrets that 17 per cent of the requests for interpretation services made by regional and other major groupings of Member States were not met, while recognizing that meetings of Charter and mandated bodies must be serviced as a priority; 11. Decides to include all necessary resources in the budget for the biennium 2000-2001 to provide interpretation services for meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States upon request by those groupings, on an ad hoc basis, in accordance with established practice, and requests the SecretaryGeneral to submit to the General Assembly at its fifty-fifth session, through the Committee on Conferences, a report on the implementation of this decision; 12. Urges intergovernmental bodies to spare no effort at the planning stage to take into account meetings of regional and other major groupings of Member States, to make provision for such meetings in their programme of work and to notify conference services, well in advance, of any cancellations so that unutilized conference-servicing resources may, to the extent possible, be reassigned to meetings of regional and other major groupings of States; 13. Decides that full interpretation services, in the six official languages, must be ensured for the meetings of intergovernmental bodies for the full duration of those meetings; 14. Expresses concern that the conference facilities at the United Nations Office at Nairobi are still underutilized, as recorded during the last reporting period; 15. Reiterates its call for better utilization of the conference facilities at Nairobi; 16. Urges all subsidiary bodies of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Programme and the Commission on Human Settlements, and encourages Member States, intergovernmental bodies and regional and other major groupings to increase their use of the conference facilities at Nairobi; /...