US funding decision slammed

DIPLOMATS and officials are appalled at the Bush administration's decision to cut support for the UN Population Fund, and say the move was motivated by domestic politics at the expense of women's and children's health.

But experts say the fallout will be minimal, noting that Washington and its allies have survived bigger crises in the last year and a half.

Europe, Canada, Japan and the United Nations have been frustrated with the administration's decisions to opt out of the Kyoto protocol on climate change and talks on biological weapons. Most recently, the US nearly backed out of its participation in the international criminal court.

The latest row over funding for the UN agency that runs family planning programmes in 141 poor nations has baffled many inside UN headquarters on Monday.

In a victory for social conservatives in the US, the administration said it would withhold $34 million that had been earmarked for the agency. Instead, the money which makes up 12% of the UNFPA budget will go to international child survival and health programmes run by the US Agency for International Development.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the decision was made after the administration concluded "that the UN Population Fund moneys go to Chinese agencies that carry out coercive programmes" that involve abortion.

But a US Government fact-finding team recently concluded the opposite. "We find no evidence that UNFPA has knowingly supported or participated in the management of a programme of coercive abortion or involuntary sterilisation in the People's Republic of China," the team wrote in its report.

Thoraya Obaid, executive director of the UN fund, questioned why the administration was cutting off aid to all countries when in the past the fund has promised not to spend the money in China.

"Women and children will die because of this decision," Obaid said.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was disappointed at the news. "I think UNFPA does very essential work and we have made it clear that it does not go around encouraging abortions. It gives good advice to women on reproductive health and does good work around the world."