WASHINGTON, Sept 28: US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, on Wednesday called for dismantling the system that allows regional groups to influence the proceedings of the world body.

In his testimony before the House International Relations Committee, Mr Bolton also supported a congressional resolution that urges cutting US financial assistance to the UN by half if it does not implement the reforms US legislators have proposed.

The House has passed a measure championed by committee Chairman Rep. Henry Hyde that establishes a timetable for reform and ties progress to the payment of US dues. The Senate has not passed the measure and the Bush administration had earlier said that it did not want to use dues as leverage.

Earlier this month, Mr Bolton cast the US vote for a watered-down reform document with obvious disappointment, after weeks of wrangling. The document backed off bureaucratic and other changes proposed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and by the United States as the UN reeled from scandals in its oil-for-food and peacekeeping operations.

Mr Bolton is expected to follow up with new and tougher resolutions, demanding more reforms.

In his first appearance on Capitol Hill since Senate Democrats blocked his confirmation over the summer, Mr Bolton also criticized the UN for trying to separate national struggles from terrorism, saying that there was no such thing as “good terrorism.”

President Bush had used a rare recess appointment to give Mr Bolton the UN job because of a strong opposition within Congress over the envoy’s strong views on the world body which some US lawmakers even described as “anti-UN.”