PRESIDENT BUSH was fighting last night to prevent his controversial nominee to be Washington’s Ambassador to the United Nations from being rejected by increasingly wary Republicans.

The White House blamed “trumped-up” charges circulated by Democrats for the sudden threat to the chances of John Bolton winning Senate approval.

Yet it is three Republicans on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee whose eleventh-hour doubts are threatening to hand Mr Bush a notable defeat.

One in particular — George Voinovich, a moderate from Ohio with a maverick streak — sparked the surprise mini-revolt that halted Mr Bolton’s expected passage to confirmation. “My conscience got to me,” Mr Voinovich said after he called for more time to investigate claims about Mr Bolton’s “pathological” behaviour and further allegations that he was a bully.

Melody Townsel, a former aid worker, told the committee how a decade earlier an enraged Mr Bolton had pursued her through a hotel in Moscow, “throwing things at me, shoving threatening letters under my door and genuinely behaving like a madman”.

She said: “I eventually retreated to my hotel room and stayed there. Mr Bolton then routinely visited me to pound on the door and shout threats.”

At the time Ms Townsel, who was working on a project for the US International Development Agency, was at odds with a firm represented by Mr Bolton, then a private lawyer.

Mr Bolton, a conservative arms control expert, was accused last week of being “a quintessential kiss-up, kick-down sort of guy” who harassed and persecuted subordinates who disagreed with him. US officials who worked with him in the State Department said that Mr Bolton had tried to manipulate intelligence on alleged Cuban biological weapons and had tried to fire analysts who disagreed with him.

Mr Voinovich said that Democrats had raised legitimate doubts about Mr Bolton’s suitability for the UN job. He said: “I didn’t feel comfortable voting for him. I think one’s interpersonal skills and their relationship with their fellow man is a very important ingredient. I’ve heard enough that gives me some real concern about Mr Bolton.”

The committee, which has to approve Mr Bolton’s nomination for it to proceed to the floor of the Senate, is made up of ten Republicans and eight Democrats. It takes only one Republican to side with the Democrats to block the nomination.

Mr Voinovich was joined by Lincoln Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican moderate, and Chuck Hagel, an independent Republican from Nebraska.

The White House continued to back Mr Bolton, insisting that he was the right man for the UN job. Scott McClellan, Mr Bush’s spokesman, said that the criticism of Mr Bolton amounted to “unsubstantiated” and “unfounded” accusations, which Mr Bolton had dealt with satisfactorily when he spent eight hours before the committee last week.

“We need to get John Bolton to the United Nations and we need to get him there sooner rather than later,” Mr McClellan said.

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