Bush's envoy demands 750 changes to reorganisation plans
Julian Borger in Washington
Friday August 26, 2005
The Guardian
John Bolton, Washington's new ambassador to the United Nations, has called for wholesale changes to a draft document due to go before a UN summit next month aimed at reshaping the world body.
Mr Bolton, a long-standing UN critic who was given a temporary appointment by George Bush three weeks ago after the United States Senate failed to agree on his nomination, has proposed 750 amendments to the draft and called for immediate talks on them.
The 29-page document has been drawn up by a committee under the UN general assembly president, Jean Ping of Gambia, over the past year, during which time several drafts have been circulated.
Critics complained that the US objections had come towards the end of the drafting process, with only three weeks to go before the summit.
But Benjamin Chang, a spokesman for the American team at the UN, said Mr Bolton had simply been restating long-held US opinions. "Those are not new positions; surprise positions," he said. "We've been engaged in this process, since the first meeting."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1556790,00.html