UN's Ban gathers support for bureaucratic reforms

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17 (Reuters) UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who got off to a rocky start in his first weeks in office, appears to have turned the corner in getting support from UN members in reorganizing the bureaucracy.

At a closed-door meeting of the 192-member General Assembly yesterday, Ban spelled out in detail why the burgeoning peacekeeping department needed to be split in two and more staff was needed. And he dropped controversial plans to downgrade the disarmament department.

''The atmosphere is clearly much better,'' said Pakistan's U.N.

Ambassador Munir Akram, head of the Group of 77 that includes 132 developing nations, which had voiced the strongest criticism of Ban's plans.

''The bottom line is everybody is going to support him,'' Germany's UN ambassador, Thomas Matussek told reporters after the meeting.

Still, Ban agreed to present his plans to two financial and one peacekeeping committee before final General Assembly approval. And he will have to slash jobs elsewhere to make up for staff needed in the new peacekeeping department.

Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister who took office on January 1, had a short honeymoon, with some top appointments and the reorganization plans greeted with skepticism.

He had wanted to merge the disarmament department with political affairs, now headed by American B Lynn Pascoe. Developing nations opposed this, in part because Pascoe came from such a heavily armed country.

The secretary-general then ran into dissension when he indicated the disarmament section of some 50 people would be headed by a lower-ranking assistant secretary-general but be called a ''high representative.'' Yesterday he dropped the idea. ''Having heard strong views from member states, I am ready to propose a high representative (for disarmament) would be appointed at the rank of undersecretary-general.'' Ban told the assembly, according to his text.

Peacekeeping, now headed by Frenchman Jean-Marie Guehenno, is more complicated with 18 missions and 100,000 troops, police and civilians in the field, a deployment larger than most countries' armies.

Ban proposed a second peacekeeping department for field support, headed by an undersecretary-general reporting to Guehenno and with the top representative in each mission ensuring a unified chain of command.

But Pakistan's Akram said he and others still had questions on ''how two people of the same rank, one reporting to the other, can work out.'' ''People like us have 10,000 troops on the ground,'' he said.

''We want to be sure that when they ask for reinforcements, for example, they get a quick response.'' Japan's UN ambassador Kenzo Oshima, whose country had also been at loggerheads with Ban over appointments, however, said, ''We should resist from the temptation to micromanage. I think it is time to act.'' Ban's plan had brought to the fore an ongoing struggle between rich and poor countries. Developing nations, which command a majority in the General Assembly, are anxious their authority not be sidestepped. Russia too criticized Ban for not consulting enough and following procedures, diplomats said.

REUTERS SP ND1508