US: Less than a month before world leaders arrive in New York for a world summit on poverty and United Nations reform, the Bush administration has thrown proceedings into turmoil with a call for drastic renegotiation of a draft agreement to be signed by presidents and prime ministers attending the event.
The US has only recently introduced more than 750 amendments which would eliminate new pledges of foreign aid to impoverished nations, scrap provisions that call for action to halt climate change and urge nuclear powers to make greater progress in dismantling their nuclear arms.
At the same time, the administration is urging member states to strengthen language in the 29-page document that calls for tougher action to combat terrorism, promote human rights and democracy and halt the spread of the world's deadliest weapons.
Next month's summit, was called by UN secretary general Kofi Annan to reinvigorate efforts to fight poverty and take stronger action in the battles against terrorism and genocide.
The leaders of 175 nations are expected to attend and sign the agreement, which has been under negotiation for six months.
But Mr Annan's effort to press for changes has been hampered by investigations into fraud concerning the UN oil-for-food programme and revelations of sexual misconduct by the organisation's peacekeepers around the world.
The summit was originally scheduled for September 14th as a follow-up to the 2000 Millennium Summit, which produced commitments by UN members to meet deadlines over the next 15 years.
These were aimed at reducing poverty, preventable diseases and other scourges afflicting the world's poor. But the Bush administration is trying to focus attention on the need to streamline the UN bureaucracy, establish a democracy fund, strengthen the human rights office and support a US initiative to halt trade in weapons of mass destruction.
The US amendments call for deleting any mention of the Millennium Development Goals, and the administration has publicly complained that the document's section on poverty is too long.
Instead, the US has sought to underscore the importance of the Monterrey Consensus - a 2002 summit in Mexico which focused on free market reforms and required governments to improve accountability in exchange for aid and debt relief.
The proposed amendments, contained in a confidential document obtained by the Washington Post, have been presented this week to select envoys.
The UN general assembly president, Jean Ping of Gambia, is organising a core group of 20 to 30 countries - including the United States and other major powers - to engage in an intensive final round of negotiations in an attempt to strike a deal.
The proposed US changes, submitted by ambassador John Bolton, touch on every aspect of the organisation's affairs. Moreover, they provide a detailed look at the Bush administration's concerns about the UN's future.
They underscore US efforts to impose tighter supervision on expenditure and to eliminate any reference to the International Criminal Court.
The administration also opposes language urging the five permanent members of the Security Council not to veto efforts to halt genocide, war crimes or ethnic cleansing. Russia, Pakistan and several other developing nations have also introduced plans for changes to the authority of some UN bodies.
However, the US proposals face strong resistance from poorer countries, which want the United Nations to focus more on alleviating poverty, criticising US and Israeli military policies in the Middle East and scaling back the UN's propensity to intervene in small countries implicated in the abuse of human rights.
US and UN diplomats say that Mr Bolton has indicated, in a series of meetings with foreign delegates, that he is prepared to pursue other negotiating options if the current process proves too cumbersome.
For example, he has suggested that the document could be replaced with a brief statement. He has also indicated that it could be divided into themes.
In meetings with foreign delegates, Mr Bolton has expressed concern about a provision of the agreement urging wealthy countries to contribute 0.7 per cent of their gross national product in aid to poor countries.
He has also objected to language urging nations to observe a moratorium on nuclear testing and to sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the US opposes.