LONDON: The United Nations is in crisis because it is seen as little more than an American appendage, two of the organization’s most senior former leaders have warned.

The former secretary-general Boutros Boutros Ghali said there was deep resentment against the UN across the developing world because of policies adopted under America’s influence. He warned that nothing less than drastic reform would allow the organization to start rebuilding trust outside the west.

His comments, in the wake of the bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad in which 23 people died, have been echoed by his colleague, Denis Halliday, the former UN assistant secretary-general, who says many senior figures at the organization are similarly disturbed at America’s dominance.

Mr Boutros Ghali, speaking on the BBC radio programme Broadcasting House on Sunday, said the UN was perceived as an extension of the US State Department.

He said the UN must find a new way of coexisting with America. He said if the situation in Iraq did not improve the US would be compelled to accept a UN presence in the country.

Mr Halliday, meanwhile, said the UN Security Council had been taken over and corrupted by America and the UK.

“The UN has been drawn into being an arm of the US — a division of the State Department,” he said.

Mr Halliday, who served under Mr Boutros Ghali and resigned his UN post over sanctions against Iraq, told the Scottish Sunday Herald newspaper that “further collaboration” between the UN, the US and Britain would be disastrous for the UN because it would be sucked into supporting the illegal occupation of Iraq.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.