UNITED NATIONS: When world leaders converge on UN headquarters for the institution’s 60th anniversary in September, Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants each one to endorse a reform document unveiled on Friday that he hopes will improve the way the world makes diplomatic decisions.

The reform proposals are full of lofty but attainable goals, distilled from a study Annan commissioned last year on how to make the world a more peaceful and stable place, as well as to restore the United Nation’s role in the centre of international decision-making.

“September is a chance to pull together to make the UN a useful instrument, able to deal with a complex and messy world,” said Brent Scowcroft, a former US national security adviser who was part of the original reform task force. “Countries are prepared to let the UN intervene in a way that no one else can.” The president of the General Assembly, Jean Ping, presented the summit document to the assembly’s 191 members on Friday, asking them to return in September with the necessary domestic support and legislation for leaders to endorse the agreement.

The reforms are carefully crafted as a package so that every country must give a little to get something back. The plan’s creators are trying to forestall the inevitable nit-picking, warning that plucking out favoured strands may make the whole plan unravel.

The document aims to update the United Nations’ vision to make it more able to deal with threats and challenges that didn’t exist when the world body was created in 1945. It asks nations to grant the secretary-general more power to run the institution — currently he cannot even hire or fire the secretariat’s personnel — and to devote more money toward such UN duties as development, protecting human rights and fostering democracy.

The document also calls on developed countries to earmark 0.7 per cent of their gross national product by 2015 to assist poorer nations. It is a target that only a handful of countries have reached. The United States spends less than 0.2 per cent and though the White House is increasing its development assistance, it is resisting outside voices telling it how to deploy its money. Last week, the European Union pledged to increase its overall aid to 0.56 per cent of national income by 2010, and 0.7 per cent by 2015. Japan this week announced it would double its aid to Africa.

The highest profile issue — expansion of the Security Council — is also the most contentious, as countries vie for new permanent seats at the centre of international diplomacy. The current five permanent powers, the United States, Britain, Russia, China and France, have been at the centre of UN decision-making since their shared victory in World War II.

The most popular proposal would create six new permanent seats and four elected two-year seats. Four of the aspirants — Japan, Germany, India and Brazil — have called for a public General Assembly vote on their plan at the end of this month. If they receive a two-thirds majority, or 128 votes, six new countries will be elected in July, including two from Africa.

But another group of countries is trying to block the plan because they fear it would award more power to regional rivals and diminish their voice in world affairs. The group, which includes Pakistan, Mexico, Canada, and Algeria, has forged an alternative proposal creating more renewable non-permanent seats that would give more countries a chance to be on the council.

The United States has publicly endorsed Japan and is holding behind-the-scenes talks with India, but seems ambivalent about Brazil. US diplomats have also publicly rejected Germany’s bid, but otherwise remain aloof from the fevered lobbying and horse-trading over the upcoming vote. Even if the General Assembly votes overwhelmingly to create the new seats, the current five permanent powers can scuttle the plan by not ratifying the agreement in their home legislatures.

But UN officials hope that the dispute over the Security Council will not affect support for the rest of the reform package. —Dawn/LAT-WP News Service