Bolton Suggests End-of-Year Deadline for U.N. Reforms

NEW YORK, Sept. 11 -- The United States should give the United Nations until the end of the year to reform and then consider cutting back on paying its dues if the changes fall short, the U.S. ambassador to the world body said Monday.

"Is good management and lack of corruption too much to ask for?" John R. Bolton asked, calling the United Nations "severely challenged from a management and accountability point of view."

Bolton's comments came in response to a question after he addressed a symposium on the future of the United Nations sponsored by the conservative Hudson Institute.

The United States, one of 192 member nations, now pays about a quarter of the U.N. budget. Conservative members of Congress have threatened spending cuts for years.

Bolton said Washington had set a goal of "complete concentration on the reform process" through the end of 2006.

"So I think what we need to do is wait until we reach the end of the year and then make an evaluation. And I think our determination and our objectives are very clear to all of the other U.N. members, and I think they can calculate the stakes if reform does not succeed," he said.

A survey released at the symposium found that 57 percent of Americans think the United Nations should be shut down and replaced if it cannot be made more effective.

But the same poll also found that 73 percent want Washington to "take a more active role" in the United Nations because "it is the best way for us to influence world affairs."

The poll relied on telephone interviews with 800 people and had a margin of error of 3.5 percentage points.

In naming Bolton as his U.N. ambassador, President Bush called on him to lead a major overhaul of the body in light of findings of widespread mismanagement and corruption in the now-defunct oil-for-food program for Iraq.

But only minor reforms have been adopted in the year since his appointment.