December 31, 1999
Web posted at: 11:13 a.m. EST (1613 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- As the world welcomed the year 2000 with fireworks, music and celebration, two nerve centers in Washington had a more serious mission -- keeping watch for potential Y2K-related glitches, including those which may not show up immediately.

"We'll need to monitor all weekend," said John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

"Some developing countries may not experience immediate problems in their basic infrastructure of power and telecommunication. It may take two or three days for degradation of service to become apparent," he told CNN from a $50 million "Information Coordinating Center" (ICC) set up by the White House to track Y2K's impact worldwide.

Any Y2K problems in your country? Countries listed by: • Alphabetical order • Time zone     ALSO Other Y2K stories     ITN on line For more ITN millennium coverage, visit ITN on line.

"And then, of course, the world will open for business on Monday, and that's when we'll test software systems and information processing systems," said Koskinen.

As information arrives, it is posted on the ICC Web site at http://www.y2k.gov.

Elsewhere in Washington, the International Y2K Cooperation Center -- a United Nations-sponsored Y2K data clearinghouse -- is also following the arrival of the new millennium.

The findings are posted on the Web at http://www.iy2kcc.org.

Information about how each participating country is handling the Y2K rollover is listed in 12 categories -- including energy, telecom, finance, transportation, hospitals, food and water.

The findings are color-coded:

• Green indicates no problem.

• Yellow indicates a problem has been reported.

• Red is for a confirmed disaster.

The center's site also links to the official Y2K Web sites of more than 100 countries.

But what if the Internet itself is crippled by Y2K-related power outages and telephone glitches? The center's director isn't worried.

"The Internet was designed to be very robust and to route around problem areas," Bruce McConnell told CNN. "We expect the Internet to function normally around the world. That doesn't mean that your particular service will be working, but that's true on any day."

Correspondent Rick Lockridge contributed to this report.

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