UN Can't Cope With Major Crises - Benn

The development secretary, Hilary Benn, will fly to New York tomorrow to deliver a sharp rebuke to the United Nations for failing the victims of humanitarian crises such as the Pakistan earthquake and the Boxing Day tsunami.

Benn believes the UN risks losing the support of donor countries if it cannot respond more effectively - and less bureaucratically - to natural disasters and conflicts. 'They shout "fire!" and then they say, "can you give us some cash to buy hoses? I need some diesel for the fire engine" - that's the system we have got,' he told The Observer. 'Completely different bodies are responsible for different operations. In some areas, there hasn't been certainty about who is doing what.'

Britain has helped to launch a new central emergency response fund to allow the UN to react to disasters swiftly - without having to come back to ask member countries for more cash each time. But so far the UN has raised only $170m (£97m), just under half of which has come from Britain.

Benn will call for other countries to join in supporting the new fund. But he also believes the UN's emergency co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, needs more powers if the cash is to be well spent: 'He needs to have the authority to bang heads together, and allocate funds.'

During both the 2004 tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake, a number of countries lent military equipment, such as helicopters and trucks, which was essential to the relief effort. Benn says the UN should also develop a formal system for calling on military resources in emergencies.

The New York speech is the second of a series that Benn is making to launch a fundamental review of Britain's aid policy. On Thursday he told an audience in London that it was time for development campaigners to embrace business, saying: 'The poor are the private sector.'