Mideast, Terrorism Take Spotlight at U.N.

UNITED NATIONS - More than 150 kings, presidents and prime ministers wrapped up the largest summit in the United Nations' 60-year history Friday by adopting a modest reform document and trading sharp words over terrorism and the Middle East.

The 35-page outcome document — whittled down from more ambitious plans after months of haggling — commits the world body to create a Peacebuilding Commission, declares a collective "responsibility to protect" civilians from genocide and massacres, and doubles the budget of the human rights office.

Gone from the final text was a promised definition of terrorism that many nations had called the summit's centerpiece. Negotiators could not bridge the divide over whether language should exempt national liberation movements — a dispute that ran squarely through the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"We have not achieved the sweeping reform we needed," Secretary-General Kofi Annan conceded to the assembly. But, he added, the document was "an important step forward" from an institution battered by the Iraq oil-for-food scandal.

President Bush, in a 13-minute speech Wednesday, made no mention of the reform disputes and instead devoted his address to terrorism, urging the world to unite against "ideologies of murder" and praising the pro-democracy movements in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, speaking Thursday, said Israel was "ready for painful concessions" for peace but demanded the Palestinians dismantle militant groups first — while Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas asked the world to help stop Israeli settlement growth.

Iran's new hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, used his debut on the world stage to defend his country's nuclear program as peaceful and accuse the West of "nuclear apartheid."

Reform advocates lamented that a plan to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission was left vague. The United States had pushed for a smaller, more credible body but settled for language committing to create one within the year.

The summit also fell short of Annan's hopes on management reform, diluting a proposal to give the secretary-general more power to move staff and money where they are needed.

"We wanted a revolution. We got a resolution," said one disappointed European diplomat. "But this is the U.N. — you take what 191 countries can agree to."