Annan: UN needs postwar reform

The United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, yesterday urged radical reform of the organisation in response to damaging divisions over Iraq.

Mr Annan, who normally tends to be cautious in his assessments, said: "The United Nations finds itself, at present, at a critical juncture."

His normal optimism has been shaken by the debilitating security council rows over the Iraq war and, more recently, the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

He called for a renewed commitment to legitimate international intervention, the expansion of the 15-member security council to make it more representative and for western countries to honour promises made three years ago to provide peacekeeping troops.

Speaking in New York, Mr Annan, discarded plans for a run-of-the-mill annual review, saying events required something different. Instead, he delivered his most pessimistic assessment yet of the UN's performance.

A UN source said: "He can no longer pretend it is business as usual."

Mr Annan has written to 191 world leaders asking them to attend the UN general assembly meeting in a fortnight to debate its priorities. The US president, George Bush, the French president, Jacques Chirac, and the German chancellor, Gerhard Schröder, are among 90 leaders who have agreed to attend. The UN said Tony Blair would not be there.

Mr Annan said: "The war exposed deep divisions in the international community, with accusations of double agendas. Although the security council has since been able to find common ground on the need to restore Iraqi sovereignty and reconstruct the country, divisions remain that will not be easily overcome."

A new draft resolution on Iraq is being negotiated by security council members in which the UN would become marginally more involved in the Iraq political process in return for providing authority for more international troops.

But the UN authorities are treading carefully, fearful the new resolution could turn out to be a dangerous fudge.

In the longer term, Mr Annan said: "Unless the security council regains confidence of states and world public opinion, individual states will increasingly resort exclusively to their own national perceptions of emerging threats and their own judgment on how best to address them."

Without naming the US, he took a sideswipe at Washington for being too quick to declare victory - as it has in Afghanistan and Iraq.

On peacekeeping operations in general, he expressed disappointment that militarily strong countries, which three years ago supported beefing up UN peacekeeping strength, have been "reluctant to contribute their forces".

He described the response of the international community to conflicts in parts of Africa as "hesitant and tardy".

Mr Annan said: "We continue to lack the political will, as well as a vision of our responsibility in the face of massive violations of human rights and humanitarian catastrophes occasioned by conflict."