US offers compromise language on UN summit goals

UNITED NATIONS, Wednesday (Reuters) U.S. Ambassador John Bolton on Tuesday offered compromise language on development and climate change to try to resolve a deadlock over a document prepared for a U.N. world summit next week.

In the face of opposition from nearly every U.N. member, Bolton said the United States was ready to accept the use of the phase "Millennium development Goals" throughout the text "provided it can be properly defined."

He submitted the amendments to a group of 32 ambassadors negotiating on how to tackle extreme poverty, human rights, U.N. management reforms and global security. Kings, prime ministers and presidents are due to approve the document at the Sept. 14-16 summit, the largest gathering ever of world leaders.

The U.S. submission came after Jean Ping, the president of the U.N. General Assembly, circulated a fourth draft of the document following a week of intense negotiations.

Millennium Development Goals, a key phrase, refers to eight objectives on poverty, hunger, primary education, AIDS and others, with specific goals to be achieved by 2015. The goals were generally agreed to by leaders at a Millennium Summit in 2000.

The new U.S. language would "ensure the timely and full realization of the development goals and objectives that emerged from the major United nations conference and summits, including those agreed at the Millennium Summit that have been known as the Millennium Development Goals..." Diplomats said the U.S. compromise might help to bring ambassadors closer on the controversy.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had hoped the summit of 175 world leaders would map out new approaches to the international system and revitalize the world body.

Rich nations were to agree on a development agenda in exchange for support for Western demands on human rights, terrorism, intervention in case of genocide and war crimes, and U.N. management reforms.

But the issues have brought out deep disagreements on every key subject, even between the United States and the European Union as well as within groups of developing nations.

Another sticking point is a provision urging governments to donate 0.7 percent of their gross national product to nonmilitary foreign aid. The European Union has agreed to a timetable to reach this goal by 2015 while the United States says it cannot commit itself to any specific target.