04 June 2004	Friday	15 Rabi-us-Saani 1425

WASHINGTON, June 3: Two key proposals in a US-led Middle East reform initiative with Group of Eight allies may be altered significantly or dropped, US officials said on Wednesday, in what may be another sign of scaled-back American ambitions.

The Bush administration proposed several new institutions that could be endorsed by the G8 summit at Sea Island, Georgia, next week to permanently promote fledgling regional economic, political and social reform efforts.

Officials said a 'forum for the future' that would offer a regular venue to discuss Middle East reform was taking center stage at the June 8-10 summit but the fate of a proposed democracy assistance group and a foundation for democracy was uncertain.

As proposed by the administration, the summit's centrepiece is to be the Greater Middle East Initiative, now renamed the G8 Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative, reflecting concerns about the US plan.

After an initial draft provoked heated objections from Europeans and Arabs, the administration scaled down its ambitions, which are aimed at advancing long-term democratic and economic reforms in a region that has become a breeding ground for anti-Western extremists.

But a more recent draft included the assistance group to coordinate American and European foundations sponsoring nongovernmental democracy programmes and a democracy foundation to take that further by creating a Mideast-focused multilateral foundation.

This would be similar to the US National Endowment for Democracy, a private non-profit group that aims to strengthen democratic institutions around the world. The US effort has been complicated by instability in Iraq, Israeli-Palestinian violence and an Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal that has stoked new anti-American sentiment.

COMPLICATIONS: "It does appear that the democracy foundation has been dropped and it does appear as if the democracy assistance group is changing," one US official told Reuters.

Another official said: "The documents and materials I have seen do not include mention of bodies other than the forum for the future." A third official said he was "not sure exactly what form it (foundation) is going to take at Sea Island or afterwards." He predicted "something like that (assistance group) will emerge but it's precise shape is still being worked on."

G8 partners have been skeptical of what one US official described as "going too far too fast on this stuff." They have preferred to deal with Mideast reform issues in the context of the "forum for the future rather than announce it all right now. They want to consider it in a considered way and not do too much creating (of new institutions) at Sea Island," he added.

The United States, determined to drive Mideast reform, will aggressively use its year-long G8 presidency to advance initiatives approved at the summit, Under secretary of State for Economic Affairs Alan Larson told the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee. -Reuters