UNITED NATIONS — Saudi Arabia, which does not allow women to drive or vote, says it has achieved “equality between the sexes.”

Saudi officials announced earlier this week that the kingdom has managed, almost a decade ahead of schedule, to achieve a set of U.N. goals that includes gender equality.

“We are a traditional society,” the Saudi ambassador to America, Adel al-Jubeir, told The New York Sun yesterday when asked about women’s rights in the kingdom.

“We have our own values,” he added. “We work within those values, but in terms of what the state and the government can do in order to improve the opportunities for women, I believe Saudi Arabia has made great strides in this area.”

Earlier this week, the Saudi minister of economy and planning, Khaled al-Gosaibi, gave a speech about the U.N. Millennium Development Goals, targets set by the U.N. Development Program that include eradicating poverty, promoting education, fighting AIDS and other diseases, and protecting the environment.

The targets, known as MDGs, include eight “general” goals, 11 “specific” ones, and 48 “indicators for evaluation.” U.N. member states are urged to achieve all of the goals before 2015.

“By 2009, we intend to eradicate poverty from the country,” Mr. Gosaibi said, according to the Saudi-owned Arab News. The kingdom has “achieved nine of the 11 specific goals almost a decade before the deadline.”

He added that Saudi Arabia is working to meet the other two goals, curbing natural waste and improving conditions in remote areas.

The no. 3 target on the MDG list is to “promote gender equality and empower women,” including gender equality in education, literacy, income distribution, and political empowerment for women.

A senior UNDP official told the Sun yesterday that the agency has no “certifying authority” to state that a country has fulfilled the MDGs. The agency’s representatives in each country “monitor progress based largely on national statistics,” the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

Mr. Jubeir spoke with U.N. reporters yesterday after meeting with Secretary-General Ban to discuss the violence in Darfur and the so-called Arab initiative for peace between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

“I discussed with the SG ways that the Arab world and the Arab League will be presenting this initiative,” he said, although he declined to detail any steps that might come next to promote it.

Mr. Jubair promised that Saudi Arabia will “bear its responsibility and do all that it can to help end the suffering of our brethren in the Sudan.” He did not say whether the kingdom will contribute troops to a proposed U.N. force in Sudan or support the force financially.

Turning to gender equality, Mr. Jubeir said, “Most students in Saudi schools are women.” The kingdom has made “great strides” in both the female and male literacy rate, he added, to the point that “there is very little differentiation between the two.”

“When it comes to expanding opportunities for women in the workplace, or expanding opportunities for women in other areas, I believe Saudi Arabia is making progress,” he said.

According to the UNDP’s 2006 Human Development Report, the adult literacy rate in Saudi Arabia is 69.3% for women and 87.1% for men. Men earn $22,617 annually on average, and women earn $3,486, the report says. It also lists such items as the “year women received the right to vote” and when they were allowed “to stand in elections.” Saudi Arabia has yet to grant either of those rights. The number of women in parliament is listed as zero.

While commending the improvement in employment for women in the kingdom, a 2002 UNDP report on MDGs in Saudi Arabia states: “The scope and diversity of employment opportunities for females are quite limited and largely concentrated in the girls’ education and health services sectors.”

The U.N.-backed development goals do not include the right of women to choose their clothing or drive a motor vehicle.