Annan Seeks Support for Reform

Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, is scheduled to fly to London this weekend to bolster support ahead of the most crucial fortnight of his career.

Mr Annan is to meet British ministers and make a speech at a conference in London on Tuesday, just 24 hours before the final report into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal, in which he is expected to be criticised, particularly in relation to the role of his son, Kojo.

The following week he will preside over the biggest-ever meeting of world leaders which is in danger of falling flat.

A UN security council source said he will be in trouble "if he comes out badly from the oil-for-food inquiry and if the summit goes belly-up."

Tony Blair will be overseas, but Mr Annan is scheduled to meet the chancellor, Gordon Brown, foreign secretary Jack Straw, and the international development secretary, Hilary Benn. Mr Blair and his ministers have been vocal in support of Mr Annan at difficult times over the past two years.

By contrast, the US has withheld support or criticised outright. The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, has introduced 750 amendments to the document that threaten to wreck the summit.

The UK's ambassador to the UN, Sir Emyr Jones Parry, is involved in talks to try to delete the most contentious of the amendments. The UK does not want to end up with an anodyne summit document.

The 36-page draft document commits UN members to try to achieve "millennium development goals", which include the reduction of poverty and hunger and universal primary education by 2015, and reform of the UN organisation. Mr Bolton wants the goals removed, but Mr Annan said on Wednesday they were central.