U.S. firm on U.N. budget threat

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NEW YORK -- U.S. Ambassador John R. Bolton said yesterday that U.N. reforms are lagging far behind Washington's expectations, and affirmed the Bush administration's intention to delay the U.N. budget if necessary.

The administration has demanded the 191-member General Assembly adopt a series of management reforms designed to streamline and improve the often cumbersome organization.

With less than three weeks of negotiations left before the 2006-07 budget is to be approved, Mr. Bolton said in an interview that Washington cannot allow the $3.6 billion spending plan to pass unless it reflects the reforms.

"We don't want to be in a position where we approve a biennium budget for two years and then find ourselves clawing from behind trying to make up the reforms," Mr. Bolton said in his spacious but sparsely furnished office at the U.S. Mission.

"The way you focus people's attention is by combining the reform work with the budget," he said.

U.N. budgets are traditionally approved by consensus, requiring every member to approve or abstain. But there is nothing in the U.N. Charter to prevent it from being taken to a vote of the General Assembly, where the United States would be hard-pressed to command a majority.

The reforms sought by Mr. Bolton include the creation of an ethics office, increased oversight of U.N. activities and approval of new offices for human rights and peace building.

Other changes would establish a policy to protect whistleblowers, make the auditing office more independent and streamline old mandates that have outlived their usefulness.

The need for such changes is widely accepted by European governments, international allies and Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

But Mr. Bolton's repeated threat to block consensus on the 2006-07 budget has angered a number of allies and, some diplomats say, jeopardized a broad coalition on reforms that once included a majority of member states.

In a rare public split with Washington, British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry rejected a U.S. suggestion for an interim budget that would allow the United Nations to carry on temporarily between budget cycles. The Japanese, who pay only a fraction less than the United States' 22 percent of the regular budget, have been silent on the issue.

A U.N. official said the U.S. tactics have severely damaged the organization's own efforts to implement reforms, many of which must be approved by the General Assembly.

"We are concerned that divisions in the membership have been widening, not shrinking, and for further reform to succeed we'll need to see the opposite in the coming days and weeks," said the official, who spoke on the condition he not be identified.

Other observers said the U.S. tactic had "thrown into chaos the reform coalition." Reform-minded countries that appear to have been spooked were said to include Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Singapore, Nigeria and Mali.

Even Mr. Bolton acknowledged that the linking of the budget to reforms had not won much support.

"The Japanese are sympathetic on substance," he said. "I think there may be tactical differences with the EU, but in meetings in the past several days I'm hearing stronger and stronger support for the proposition that we have a window here in which we can make these reforms and we better not let it close."

U.N. officials have responded without enthusiasm to the U.S. proposal for an interim budget, possibly for three months, to allow the institution to operate while negotiations continue.

"It will be a problem for my department and it will be a problem for the U.N.," Undersecretary General for Administration and Management Christopher Burnham said yesterday. "We need a full-year budget."

U.N. Controller Warren Sach said last week that a limited spending authority would jeopardize salary payments for thousands of employees and hamper the organization's ability to plan.