Kofi Annan warns US against pulling plug on UN

United Nations, June 16 : Secretary-General Kofi Annan predicted the United Nations would avert a budget crisis threatened at the end of the month over the slow pace of UN reforms and implicitly warned the United States against trying to ''pull the plug'' on the world body.

''The reform will proceed, and the cap on the budget will be lifted. There will be no crisis as far as I can see this month,'' Annan told a news conference.

Rich nations, pushed by the United States, imposed a cap on the UN budget in December in hopes of increasing pressure on developing nations to approve long-delayed management reforms by June 30.

Wealthy nations, although far outnumbered by poor countries, pay for more than 80 percent of the UN budget.

But the move backfired after developing nations revolted last month and voted down the centerpiece of the reform plan and then threatened to simply vote away the budget cap.

US and Japanese officials, while not explicitly saying they would cut their dues payments later this year, have grumbled they could come under domestic pressure to do so.

Some US officials have warned that angry members of Congress could trim Washington's payments as a result of what they see as growing anti-US sentiment among UN leaders and developing nations.

US-UN tensions flared anew last week after UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown accused the George W Bush administration of keeping its extensive reliance on the United Nations ''a secret in Middle America'' because working with the world body was ''not perceived to be good politics at home.'' 'A VERY HARD SELL' US Ambassador John Bolton called the speech an insult to the American people and pressed Annan to repudiate Malloch Brown's remarks. If he didn't, ''the victim, I fear, will be the United Nations,'' Bolton warned.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later telephoned Annan to say she agreed with Bolton's criticisms.

Annan backed his deputy, saying he agreed with the thrust of his remarks -- that the United Nations needed the United States and the United States needed the United Nations.

Bolton also warned the speech would set back the cause of reforms. But he said today the United States, Japan and the European Union had assured the bloc of developing nations a day earlier they would support lifting the budget cap if a reform package got off the ground.

Annan told reporters he saw no signs Washington was backing away from reforms or that Malloch Brown's remarks had left them ''much more difficult'' to negotiate.

''For someone to say that 'because you have not reformed to my satisfaction I am going to pull the plug and stop all the activities,' it is going to be a very hard sell for all the member states to swallow and rightly so.'' Annan added.

The ''tensions and poisonous atmosphere'' he detected earlier in the year appeared to be dissipating, he said, predicting the 191 UN member nations would now ''come together in the common interest and strengthen the organization.''

Reuters