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US Democrats to try to block Bolton appointment to UN

Democrats are to seek to block President George W. Bush's hawkish choice for the US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, in Congress this week.

They have admitted they have little chance of stopping Bolton going to the sensitive post but hope their gesture will damage the standing of the self-confessed critic of the UN.

Bolton was a strong advocate of US military action in Iraq, after it failed to win UN Security Council approval, and is highly critical of North Korea and other hardline regimes.

Analysts say Bush is signalling his determination to push his administration's conservative policies by sending Bolton to the UN and Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to head the World Bank.

"He is a tough minded diplomat. He has a strong record of success and he has a proven track record of effective multilateralism," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said when the administration announced Bolton as its choice.

Democrats doubt Bolton's record however.

Senator Joseph Biden, a leading Democrat, said he hoped Bolton's nomination could be "derailed" but he was not optimistic. "There are a number of Republicans who are uneasy about this nomination; they're going vote for him but they don't think it's a good nomination."

"Sending Bolton to an institution he doesn't support, he thinks has no valuable mission, and has been one that has been his punching bag for the past 20 years, is the exact opposite," added Biden.

"It's not about his ideology, it's about him going to an institution that he doesn't hold in high regard, and it's clear to the rest of the world he doesn't."

Biden underlined his support for the Bush administration's efforts to garner European support over Iraq, both within NATO and the UN, warning that Bolton's appointment risked jeopardizing such efforts.

"It's the exact wrong person to be sending at the exact wrong time."

Democrats also reproach Bolton for systematically giving biased intelligence information on Iraqi armament, congressional sources said, and are expected to closely question him on it during his nomination hearing.

Bolton has repeatedly complained about the money that the US owes the UN. He defended the idea of a pre-emptive attack against Iraq even before the UN had rejected the US proposal.

Former Democratic presidential candidate Senator John Kerry called the nomination "inexplicable."

At the end of March, 59 former US diplomats wrote to the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, "strongly" urging lawmakers to reject the nomination.
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