Leaders united on terrorism but divided on reform

WORLD leaders united yesterday to demand a global ban on incitement to terrorism but they fell short of ambitions for a fundamental reform of the United Nations at a summit on its 60th anniversary.

The 15-member Security Council, a symbol of the inability to adapt the world organisation to the 21st century, held a rare top-level session to adopt a resolution on terrorism proposed by Britain following the July 7 London bombings.

“We have a solemn obligation to stop terrorism at its early stages,” US President George W Bush said.

But Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the gathering of kings, presidents and prime ministers that despite some progress, negotiators had failed to achieve the profound overhaul of UN policies and institutions he sought.

French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin served a reminder of the topicality of the issue, warning Iran that it faced referral to the UN Security Council unless it met its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It was a breakthrough that the international community had agreed for the first time it had a responsibility to intervene to protect civilians against genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing, Annan told a sprawling gathering overshadowed by a scandal over abuses of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq.

Bush referred obliquely to the scandal, saying the United Nations must be “free of corruption, and accountable to the people it serves” and practice the high moral standards it preached.

The US leader focused on his priorities of spreading democracy and eliminating barriers to free trade, as well as using military force, to defeat terrorism and transform the troubled Middle East.

Addressing a world body whose members are still deeply divided over the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, he insisted Iraqis were on the road to building a model democracy.

While Bush emphasised the fight against terrorism, Swedish Prime Minister Goran Persson, one of the co-chairmen, said the main point of the summit should be “to get the fight against world poverty back on track”.

In a veiled criticism of the US Dutch Prime Minister Jan-Peter Balkenende said the Europeans had agreed to boost development aid spending but “we need to see more equal burden- sharing”.

UN officials highlighted initiatives, including the establishment of a new human rights body and a peace-building commission to help nations emerging from war.

Human rights, anti-poverty and other advocacy groups said the outcome was disappointing.