U.N. Assailed At Summit

Bitter differences among U.N. member states have blocked many crucial United Nations reforms, and nations must act boldly to restore the world body's credibility, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told a summit of world leaders.

Presidents and prime ministers were more blunt about the U.N. system at the three-day gathering, which started Wednesday, to mark the United Nations' 60th anniversary.

"If member countries want the United Nations to be respected and effective, they should begin by making sure it is worthy of respect," President Bush said.

"The United Nations should live up to its name," Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said.

Instead of a celebration of U.N. achievements since its founding in the ashes of World War II, the summit was much more a somber reappraisal of its shortcomings and a debate about how to meet the daunting challenges of a world where poverty and violence are still endemic.

On Thursday, leaders from countries including Russia, Iraq, China, Israel, France, Venezeula and Afghanistan were to address the General Assembly. British Prime Minister Tony Blair was to host a presentation on poverty reduction, attended by Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo and Irish rocker and anti-poverty campaigner Bob Geldof. And a Korean Society dinner was to honor Bush and South Korean President Roh Moo-Hyun.

Coming into the summit, diplomats had to dilute a document on goals for tackling rights abuses, terrorism and U.N. reform because they couldn't settle their disputes.

In opening the summit that he called a year ago in hopes of winning approval for an ambitious blueprint to modernize the United Nations, Annan told more than 150 presidents, prime ministers and kings Wednesday that "a good start" had been made with the document.

But he also said leaders must "be frank with each other, and the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required."

The summit began a week after investigators criticized alleged corruption and U.N. mismanagement of the oil-for-food program in Iraq, and on a day when more than 160 people died in attacks in Baghdad — a harsh reminder of the fight against terrorism that was a highlight of President Bush's speech.

A key goal of the summit is to take action to achieve U.N. Millennium Development Goals, a set of eight targets meant to reduce global poverty and disease.

The leader of the Netherlands challenged other rich nations to join the handful of countries that have committed to setting aside 0.7 percent of gross national product for overseas development aid. The United States strongly opposes the target.

Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende said there's only a slim chance as it is of meeting the millennium goals.

"The shortfalls are serious. Nothing less than an extra 50 to 60 billion (dollars) must be raised every year" to achieve millennium goals, he told the U.N. World Summit.

President Bush broadened the terrorism fight beyond the military arena, saying world leaders have "a solemn obligation" to stop terrorism in its early stages.

Declaring that poverty breeds despair and terrorism, he challenged leaders to abolish all trade tariffs and subsidies to promote prosperity and opportunity in poor nations, a move that would be worth billions of dollars.

"Either hope will spread, or violence will spread, and we must take the side of hope," he said.

CBS News Foreign Affairs Analyst Pamela Falk said the president's "focus on world poverty and hunger, terror and infection struck a sympathetic chord to a skeptical audience of presidents and prime ministers."

Geldof, who organized the Live Aid concerts and campaigns against poverty, said he was sitting in the General Assembly chamber with U.N. anti-poverty chief Jeffrey Sachs and they couldn't believe what they heard.

"I think he's really throwing down the gauntlet. It's a very bold move," Geldof said of Bush's trade tariff proposal, adding that he was impressed with the president's acknowledgment that terrorism "comes from despair and lack of hope."

And while diplomats could not agree on reforming the long-outdated U.N. Security Council ahead of time despite Annan's urgings, several nations made clear they won't back down on their demand for change.

Even so, they displayed some of the national rivalries that have blocked expansion so far. South Korea's president made a veiled reference to Japan's ambition for a permanent seat on the council in telling the assembly that council reform must proceed democratically.

"Let me stress that any reform plan we arrive at should serve to facilitate harmony among nations, rather than presage another variant of great power politics," Roh said.

Other familiar tensions were also evident.

Soon after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got up to speak, two U.S. diplomats got up and left the General Assembly hall, leaving two U.S. note-takers behind. The U.S. Mission denied any symbolism in the decision.

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe made a thinly veiled criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, saying "the mighty and powerful" have violated the sovereignty of small and weak countries.

On the other hand, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon approached Pervez Musharraf — the president of mostly Muslim Pakistan — and shook his hand.

"He asked me how I was, I asked him how he was. That's very good," Musharraf told reporters with a smile after initially evading questions about the meeting.