05 December 2004	Sunday	22 Shawwal 1425

UNITED NATIONS, Dec 4: Although UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan received unqualified support from most of the 191 member states of the United Nations, UN officials and diplomats fear that the loss of support from the United States may undermine the organization beyond repair.

On Friday, the European Union threw its political weight behind the beleaguered UN Chief but the United States again refused to back him and a US senator reiterated his call for the UN chief to resign.

But Mr Annan has the crucial backing of the four other veto-wielding members on the UN Security Council - Russia, China, Britain and France.

In a show of support from the powerful European Union, the ambassador of the Netherlands, which currently holds the EU presidency, went to Annan's 38th floor office at UN headquarters on Friday morning to express support to the secretary-general on behalf of the 25-nation bloc.

The 54 African nations sent a letter of support to Mr Annan on Tuesday, and he got strong backing on Wednesday at a meeting with 11 ambassadors including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Pakistan, South Korea and Turkey.

LOSS OF CONTRIBUTION: On Thursday, President Bush sidestepped a question about Mr Annan's resignation calls saying "I look forward to the full disclosure of the facts, a good, honest appraisal of that which went on." This was construed as a signal that White House is angry with Mr Annan and wants him to leave.

Several diplomats and UN Officials fear that the United States which contributes almost 25 per cent of the UN dues - most of any other country since its inception - may halt the payments as it did during the Reagan and Clinton administrations which can undermine UN reforms now on the world body's agenda.

But on Friday the departing US Secretary of state, Colin Powell, praised Mr Annan, calling him a "good secretary-general," and noted that the investigations focused on the oil-for-food programme, not on Mr Annan.

However, his remarks now carry little weight with the conservative lawmakers and administration officials who some say have already called for Mr Annan to resign.

At the heart of the issue is Mr Annan's determination that US-led war in Iraq was illegal in the backdrop of the UN charter, and his letter to the President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair not to undertake the Fallujah offensive saying it would undermine the upcoming elections in Iraq.

But the conservatives in Bush administration have put the fraud allegations in Iraq food-for-oil programme as being the reason for Mr Annan to resign.

Several US newspapers have called for Mr Annan to be replaced because of the oil-for-food allegations, and Senator Norm Coleman's demand for the secretary-general to resign made headlines earlier this week.

The Minnesota Republican reiterated in a CNN interview on Friday that the UN chief executive presided over the "greatest fraud and theft" in the history of the United Nations.

"You need credibility and you can't have that if the guy who is in charge is still in charge," said Coleman, who is leading one of five US Congressional investigations into the oil-for-food accusations.

US Ambassador John Danforth, whose resignation as envoy to the United Nations was confirmed late Thursday, met Mr Annan. Mr Danforth told reporters that Mr Annan's future wasn't discussed, but he refused several times to back him.

The New York Times noted in an article on Saturday that "there is little doubt that the president's comments, coupled with the call this week for Mr Annan's resignation by Senator Norm Coleman, a Minnesota Republican, have alarmed senior United Nations diplomats and many of the institution's supporters.