Evelyn Leopold: U.S. rejects U.N. reform proposals on aid, debt

Posted by Xiao Qiang | Apr 7, 2005

The United States rejected on Thursday several of Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s key proposals to reform the United Nations, including a timetable for aid increase, debt forgiveness and expansion of the U.N. Security Council.

Annan has presented a series of recommendations in the most sweeping overhaul of the world body since 1945 and urged members to adopt most of them as a package at a summit in September and “not as an a la carte menu.”

But the Bush administration favors exactly that. It backs most of Annan’s suggestions on security, human rights, terrorism and unconventional weapons and rejects a quick reform of the Security Council, debt forgiveness and a timetable for financing anti-poverty goals for the poorest of the poor.