LONG-SIMMERING tensions between the Bush Administration and the United Nations leadership erupted into open warfare yesterday when Washington’s ambassador voiced outrage at criticism of the United States by the UN’s British second-in-command.

John Bolton, the US Ambassador to the UN, called on Kofi Annan, its Secretary- General, to “personally and publicly repudiate” criticisms of the US and its people by Mark Malloch Brown, his British deputy.

But Mr Annan, an old friend of Mr Malloch Brown who has promoted him to a series of top jobs in the UN system, retires on December 31 after a decade in office and was in no mood to back down.

“The Secretary-General stands by the Deputy Secretary-General and agrees with the thrust of his speech,” Mr Annan’s spokesman said last night. “The speech was not a mistake.”

In his speech on Tuesday, Mr Malloch Brown attacked the US for “too much unchecked UN-bashing and stereotyping over too many years. From Lebanon and Afghanistan to Syria, Iran and the Palestinian issue, the US is constructively engaged with the UN,” he said.

“But that is not well known or understood, in part because much of the public discourse that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors, such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News,” he added.

“That is what I mean by ‘stealth’ diplomacy: The UN’s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world.”

Mr Bolton told Mr Annan that Mr Malloch Brown’s comments were “the worst mistake by a senior UN official” that he had seen in many years and would damage the world body.

Analysts say that the clash could imperil congressional funding for the UN. The US, which pays 22 per cent of the UN’s administrative budget, is already threatening to block its budget for the second half of this year unless it adopts a set of management reforms.

Mr Malloch Brown’s speech was delivered to a think-tank seminar attended by prominent Democrat foreign policy experts and supporters. The audience included Madeleine Albright, the Clinton Administration’s Secretary of State, Anthony Lake, National Security Adviser to President Clinton, and Richard Holbrooke, the former UN Ambassador.

Mr Bolton, a longtime UN critic, denounced Mr Malloch Brown’s “condescending, patronising tone about the American people”.

He said: “Fundamentally and very sadly, this was a criticism of the American people, not the American Government, by an international civil servant . . . It’s just illegitimate.” He said he feared that the fallout would hurt the UN far more than the US and warned Mr Annan of the “potential adverse effects these remarks would have on the organisation”. Mr Bolton is expected to comment further on the controversy in a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies in London today.

Mr Malloch Brown last night defended his remarks, saying the crisis facing the UN demanded that he speak out. “For the life of me, I cannot understand how that can be construed as an anti-American speech,” he said.

The row comes after months of tension between the blunt-speaking US envoy and Mr Malloch Brown, a former journalist and political consultant who was drafted in to do damage control during the Oil-for-Food scandal.

IN THE US CORNER . . .

JOHN BOLTON

Age 57

Trademark Walrus moustache

Background Yale-educated lawyer. Served Ronald Reagan and George Bush Senior. US chief arms control negotiator and ambassador to UN since 2005

Best known for Helping George W Bush to clinch victory in disputed 2000 election in Florida. Denounced North Korea as “hellish nightmare”. Accused of bullying subordinates in State Department

Quote “There is no such thing as the United Nations. The United States makes the UN work, when it wants to work. If the UN building in New York lost ten stories, it would not make a bit of difference”

IN THE UN CORNER . . .

MARK MALLOCH BROWN

Age 52

Trademark Transatlantic twang

Background Marlborough College and Cambridge University. Worked as a journalist on the Economist before joining the World Bank and heading the UN’s Development Programme

Best known for Accepting job as UN deputy secretary-general to reform it after allegations of corruption, bribery and sexual harassment. Lives in home owned by the financier George Soros

Quote “If you look at the past 60 years of the UN, things rarely go well when there are strains in the relationship with the US. We must learn to trust the US without being seen as a poodle of America”

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