By Mark O'Neill

BEIJING, July 16 (Reuter) - The secretary-general of the Fourth United Nations Conference on Women praised facilities at a controversial site for non-government organisations and said the time had come to concentrate on women's issues. Gertrude Mongella, of Tanzania, was addressing a news conference at the end of a five-day visit to inspect facilities for the conference, China's first major international meeting, in Beijing from September 4 to 15.

From August 30 to September 8, more than 2,100 NGOs will attend a Non-Governmental Organisation Forum in Huairou, a dusty farm town an hour's drive from the capital. The forum was moved there on April 4 by the communist-run All-China Women's Federation, which said the original venue, Beijing's huge Workers' Stadium, was unfit due to structural problems, provoking uproar from many NGOs.

After visiting Huairou in pouring rain on Friday, Mongella praised it as one of the best sites given to NGOs for a conference, saying its facilities were comfortable and orderly. "The preparations have been very well done by the host country," she said. She asked the media to shift their attention from the location of Huairou, a temporary issue, to what she called the permanent issues of the conference, including violence against women, women's illiteracy, poverty, equal pay and greater participation in politics.

A platform of action to be adopted by the conference is being drawn up and will be further discussed by member states at the United Nations from July 31 to August 4, she said. While women have made progress over the last 20 years toward legal equality, equal pay and abolition of illiteracy, progress has been too slow and must be speeded up, she said. "This must be a conference of action and commitment," she said. "We know what the problems are."

Asked whether everyone who was accredited would be given a visa, Mongella said that the Chinese government had told its consulates round the world to start issuing visas. Asked whether the women of Tibet and Taiwan would have their voices heard at the conference, she said the question should be answered by the host country.

Beijing considers Tibet and Taiwan to be an integral part of China. But women from these countries holding foreign passports are expected to try to attend the NGO forum and raise issues Beijing considers sensitive. Chinese and western sources have said the move to Huairou is an excuse to isolate the forum and head off the kind of downtown street protests during other U.N. conferences.

One western diplomat said that, by moving the NGO forum to Huairou, Beijing was shooting itself in the foot. "The news should be about the women's conference and the issues it will discuss," he said. "Instead, it has become the NGOs and why they have been moved."