Kofi Annan used a farewell speech yesterday as United Nations Secretary-General to accuse the United States of abandoning its own ideals in the War on Terror.

In his last major policy address, the UN chief reiterated his criticism of the Iraq war and implied doubts about the leadership of President Bush.

Mr Annan chose Harry Truman’s presidential library in Independence, Missouri, as the venue for his speech in tribute to the American President who oversaw the creation of the UN in 1945.

“More than ever today, Americans, like the rest of humanity, need a functioning global system through which the world’s peoples can face global challenges together. And in order to function, the system still cries out for far-sighted American leadership, in the Truman tradition,” Mr Annan said in an apparent swipe at President Bush.

Mr Annan, who is replaced on January 1 by Ban Ki Moon, of South Korea, has clashed publicly with the Bush Administration over the war in Iraq, which he has termed “illegal”.

Politicians from Mr Bush’s Republican Party have criticised Mr Annan’s role in the Oil-for-Food scandal, after it emerged that his son had lobbied to win a lucrative UN contract.

In June, the UN chief also backed his British No 2, Mark Malloch Brown, in a public row with John Bolton, America’s UN Ambassador. Mr Malloch Brown’s criticism that Washington allowed “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping” drew a sharp retort from Mr Bolton. Mr Annan rejected Mr Bolton’s call to renounce Mr Malloch Brown’s remarks.

Mr Annan travelled to Washington last week for a private farewell dinner with Mr Bush, Mr Bolton and Mr Malloch Brown and their wives. Afterwards, the everhawkish Mr Bolton said: “Nobody sang Kumbaya.” Told of Mr Bolton’s comment, Mr Annan laughed and asked: “But does he know how to sing it?”

It is hardly unprecedented for a UN secretary-general to voice frustration at American power on leaving office. Mr Annan’s predecessor, Boutros Boutros Ghali, did so in a book titled Unvanquished: A US-UN Saga after being vetoed by Washington for a second five-year term in 1996.

But Mr Annan, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate once hailed as a “diplomatic rock star”, has taken the somewhat unusual step of criticising Washington while still in office.

Noting that America had historically taken the lead on human rights, he issued a warning about the US role in the wake of revelations about secret prisons, the Guantanamo Bay detention centre and torture at Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq. “That lead can only be maintained if America remains true to its principles, including in the struggle against terrorism. When it appears to abandon its own ideals and objectives, its friends abroad are naturally troubled and confused,” he said. In an apparent reference to the invasion of Iraq, Mr Annan asserted that all states must play by the rules towards each other. “No state can make its own actions legitimate in the eyes of others,” he said.

“When power, especially military force, is used, the world will consider it legitimate only when convinced that it is being used for the right purpose, for broadly shared aims, in accordance with broadly accepted norms.”

He underlined that the five veto-bearing permanent members of the UN Security Council bear a “special responsibility”.

“The Security Council is not just another stage on which to act out national interests. It is the management committee, if you will, of our fledgling collective security system,” Mr Annan said. He ended with an appeal for US engagement with the UN. “None of our global institutions can accomplish much when the US remains aloof. But when it is fully engaged, the sky’s the limit.”

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A DIFFICULT JUGGLING ACT

1998 Negotiates deal on weapons inspections with the Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Tells reporters: “Can I trust Saddam Hussein? I think I can do business with him.”

1999 Poses question of the “Right of humanitarian intervention — when should there be a moral case for foreign states to intervene in a country’s affairs?”

2001 The UN and Mr Annan share the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of their work “for a better organised and more peaceful world”

2002 Elected to second term

2003 US-led coalition invades Iraq without specific UN resolution. Mr Annan later says: “From the charter point of view, it was illegal”

2004 Iraqi newspaper breaks story of mismanagement in UN Oil-for-Food programme in Iraq. Funds siphoned to Saddam and to hundreds of people around the world; Mr Annan’s son Kojo is implicated

2006 Announces last month that Sudan has agreed to hybrid African Union and UN force in Darfur, but it has yet to be implemented

Sources: UN, Nobel Committee, Times archive

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