Nations divided over UN budget reform

BUDGET CRISIS AT TURTLE BAY

"The United Nations on Thursday night braced itself for a major budget crisis, after the developing world rejected entreaties by rich countries and the UN Secretariat, and pressed ahead with a resolution that many fear could sink efforts to reform the organisation.

A highly-charged meeting of the UN’s budget committee descended into angry rhetoric after South Africa, representing the G77 group of developing nations and China, threw back a last-ditch effort by UN secretary-general Kofi Annan to defuse the situation.

At the heart of the showdown lay a power struggle for control of the UN, between developing nations, which constitute the majority of its membership, the developed world, which pays most of the UN’s bills, and the UN secretariat, which wants more autonomy."

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