UNITED NATIONS, March 3: Louise Arbour, the UN Human Rights Commissioner, is stepping down after a four-year term that has been highlighted by confrontation with the Bush administration over the Iraq war, the death penalty, US prisons in Abu-Ghairaib and Guantanamo bay.

Ms Arbour’s departure comes at a time when critics are questioning the United Nations’ reputation as a moral authority as the UN failed to assail Israeli attacks on civilians in Gaza and its human rights violations in the occupied territories.

In a newspaper interview on Friday, Ms Arbour said the US-led counter-terrorism struggle had set back the cause of human rights by “decades” and has exacerbated a “profound divide” between the United States, its western allies and the developing world. “The war on terror has inflicted a very serious setback for the international human rights agenda,” she said.

Human rights advocates have praised Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court judge, as a tough, principled lawyer who has offered the United Nations’ most forceful critique of the United States’ use of harsh interrogation techniques and the transfer of suspects to countries where they stand a chance of being tortured.

They note that she has done more to expand the presence of UN rights monitors around the world, reporting on abuses from Baghdad to Kathmandu.

Ms Arbour has told friends that she is leaving to spend more time with her family and to avoid a bitter political battle over a major anti-racism summit next year in South Africa.

Arbour’s influence in the United Nations has diminished since the departure of Secretary General Kofi Annan .She has often been at odds with his successor Ban Ki-moon who views public diplomacy on human rights as grandstanding.