Annan feuds with US envoy over UN budget reform
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-12-03 09:28

"Reform should drive the budget process, not the other way round. And what we proposed in order not to disrupt the work of the UN was an interim budget, of three to four months," Bolton said.

The management reforms demanded by Washington, and pushed strongly in the wake of the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, include giving the secretary general greater powers in exchange for greater accountability, creating a new ethics office and establishing a whistle-blower program to root out corruption.

The broader reforms agreed at the UN world summit in September include setting up a more effective human rights council and a peacebuilding commission to assist countries emerging from conflicts.

But the reform package is bogged down over a perceived power struggle between Annan's secretariat and the 191-member General Assembly.

Annan stressed the urgency of establishing the new human rights council and management reform.

"I put forward proposals I expect states to endorse to show movement on that track," Annan said.

Japan's UN envoy Kenzo Oshima, whose country is the second largest contributor to the UN budget after the US, said he shared some of the concerns expressed by Bolton.

"We think it's very important that the next (budget) should reflect at least some of the conclusions or implementations" of the reforms agreed in September," he said.

The UN General Assembly's budgetary committee is currently debating a proposed regular budget totaling 3.8 billion dollars, including around 73 million dollars for reform activities decided at the UN world summit.

Warren Sach, a UN assistant secretary general and controller, told reporters early this week that Bolton's proposal would cripple the UN's cash flow, forcing the world body to draw on reserves, cut back on expenditures and borrow from peacekeeping-type operations.

Meanwhile The New York Times on Friday said Bolton's "threat to block the next UN budget is likely to be counterproductive."

"John Bolton has been all muscle and no diplomacy as the United States ambassador to the United Nations," the daily said.

"Just as the (US) Senate feared when it declined to confirm Mr Bolton in the job, his blustering unilateral style is turning him into one of the biggest obstacles to achieving changes that had been within reach before he appeared on the scene."