An international alliance will confront US President George W. Bush tomorrow to salvage as much as possible of an ambitious plan to reshape the UN and tackle world poverty.
The head-to-head in New York comes after the revelation that the US administration is proposing wholesale changes to crucial parts of the biggest overhaul of the UN since it was founded more than 50 years ago.
A draft of that plan had included a review of progress on the UN's millennium development goals -- poverty eradication targets set in 2000 for completion by 2015 -- and the introduction of reforms aimed at repairing the damage done to the UN's reputation by Iraq, Rwanda and the Balkans.
But it was revealed this week that Bush's new ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, was seeking 750 changes to the 36-page draft plan to be presented to a special summit in New York next month.
Bolton's amendments, if successful, would leave the plan in tatters.
The British Foreign Office confirmed yesterday that Britain was standing behind the original plan, putting it at odds with Bush.
The concern in British and other international circles is that the US' objections, if adopted, would severely undermine the UN summit, the biggest-ever gathering of world leaders.
At least 175 world leaders have accepted an invitation to attend. The UN said on Friday that Bush had confirmed that he would be there.
A wide range of organizations, from aid groups to the anti-arms lobby, expressed dismay about Bolton's objections on Friday and voiced concern that the summit may end in failure.
A source who is close to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said it was too early to declare the UN plan dead.
"Bolton wants to knock down the plan and start from scratch," the source said.
"He will find that his opinions are not shared by most of the rest of the world," the source added.
UN General Assembly President Jean Ping has been working on the draft -- covering issues of poverty, climate change, genocide, small arms, the creation of a permanent UN peacekeeping capability and reform of the UN management structure -- for the past year.
Ping said the "core group" representing all regions and groups at the UN would start negotiations tomorrow and was prepared to work nights to finalize a document by Sept. 2 if possible.
The text would then be submitted to member states on Sept. 6 for approval, and sent for translation into the UN's six official languages, he said.
"We have to work hard, and we'll do everything in order to produce an outcome," Ping told reporters after a closed-door meeting of representatives from all countries.
But any other issue in the document can also be raised, and even though about 30 countries will be leading the negotiations, any other UN member state can step in with proposals during the negotiations, Ping said.
He said the key negotiators would include the five permanent Security Council members -- the US, Russia, China, Britain and France -- as well as Malaysia, which heads the Nonaligned Movement, Japan, India, Pakistan and representatives from every region.
As well as divisions about the agenda, the summit is in danger of being overshadowed by the Sept. 6 publication of an internal UN report into the running of the organization's oil-for-food program in Iraq from 1996 to 2003, which was beset by scandal and corruption.
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