GRAND hopes of remaking the UN for the 21st century were dashed yesterday as world leaders began arriving in New York for what has been billed as the largest summit in history.

George W. Bush and Tony Blair are among 150 presidents and prime ministers, including Ariel Sharon of Israel, Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan and Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, due to speak at the three-day meeting which starts today.

UN officials originally hoped that the summit would provide a “San Francisco moment” to revive the world organisation that was founded in that city 60 years ago. But wrangling among rival camps, reminiscent of the North-South conflicts of the 1970s, has stripped the draft summit declaration of most of its bold ideas.

A watered-down text was approved by the 191-member General Assembly last night, with only Cuba and Venezuela dissenting. Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, denied that the agreement amounted to a “failure” but conceded that it did not measure up to his original goals.

“We would have preferred stronger language in some parts of the text, but they have taken the decisions they have taken,” Mr Annan said. “There were governments that were not able to take the decisions necessary. There were spoilers in the group. I think some delegations focused on the trees and missed the forest.”

John Howard, the Australian Prime Minister, said: “Some of the expectations were unrealistic. At the end of the day, those who believe you can invest in one multilateral organisation the potential resolution of all the world’s difficulties are going to be disappointed.”

John Bolton, the American UN Ambassador, said: “This is not the alpha and the omega, and we never thought it would be.”

The drive to remake the UN dates back two years to a speech in which Mr Annan said that the organisation had reached a “fork in the road” after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the Iraq war.

Though personally tarnished by the Oil-for-Food scandal, Mr Annan commissioned a study from a 16-member high-level panel and followed up with his own reform proposal, entitled In Larger Freedom. He suggested a “grand bargain” that offered development for poor countries in exchange for security for rich nations.

The summit declaration breaks new ground with an affirmation of the “responsibility to protect” populations from genocide, ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity. Despite American resistance, it will also reaffirm the antipoverty Millennium Development Goals and the aid target for rich countries of 0.7 per cent of GNP.

The 15-nation Security Council, with Mr Blair and Mr Bush present, will adopt a British-sponsored resolution today calling on all UN members to outlaw incitement to terrorism in the wake of the London bombings.

Mr Blair is also expected to make a joint appearance tomorrow with Bob Geldof, the Live8 anti-poverty campaigner. But key proposals for overhauling the UN have been watered down in weeks of day-and-night negotiations that pitted the US against developing countries such as Cuba, Egypt, Iran and Pakistan.

In an effort to rescue the summit, frustrated British diplomats brokered a compromise by dropping important demands on terrorism and human rights. The compromise deleted a controversial passage that described the deliberate killing of civilians as terrorism. It also removed qualifications for membership from the new UN human rights council.

Previously, Britain had pushed for criteria for membership of the new body and election by a two-thirds majority of the 191-nation General Assembly to ensure that the human rights council was not dominated by rights abusers, as the present UN human rights commission is. The new text says only that the “mandates, modalities, functions, size, composition, membership, working methods and procedures” will be worked out over the next year. Britain made similar concessions to save the proposed new peacebuilding commission, Efforts to add six new permanent members to the Security Council, including Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, had already fallen by the wayside.

STICKING POINTS FOR REFORM

Terrorism Condemns terrorism “in all its forms”. But language describing deliberate targeting of civilians as terrorism has been dropped. Arab nations want a reference to national liberation struggles

Human rights Promises to create a new Human Rights Council, but drops requirements that members show good human rights records and be elected by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly

Humanitarian intervention Proclaims “responsibility to protect” populations from genocide, war crimes, ethnic cleansing. UN-approved military intervention allowed “should peaceful means be inadequate” and where national authorities are “manifestly failing to protect their populations”

Development Reaffirms existing “Millennium Development Goals” and aid target of 0.7 percent of GNP for rich nations. Differences remain over trade

Peacebuilding commission Will be set up to help countries recovering from conflicts. Disagreement over whether it will be supervised by the Security Council or the General Assembly

Disarmament All references dropped

UN management reform Recognises need for an “efficient, effective and accountable” UN secretariat, but developing countries resisting Western calls to give the Secretary-General more power

Security Council reform No firm proposals on the expansion of the 15-nation UN Security Council

Explore World News

• World Agenda

• Iraq News

• US & Americas News

• Europe News

• Middle East News

• Afghanistan News

• Asia News

• Africa News

• Ireland News

Times Recommends

• Mandela’s tribe threatens President Zuma
• The French empire strikes back
• Wife of cheating governor exacts a political revenge