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Not much ado about UN reform

Despite widespread skepticism in Washington about the United Nations, the action plan for reform adopted by the General Assembly Tuesday afternoon does offer enough to keep the Bush administration interested in the world`s largest international institution, observers say - and to keep the US pressing for further reforms. Agreement on a summit document that twins reform objectives with international development goals came after months of talks and several days of marathon negotiations. The final document is a shell of what Secretary-General Kofi Annan sought when he unveiled his reform plan in March of this year. In the 35-page declaration, most specifics in the original texts on terrorism, development goals, nuclear nonproliferation, and human rights have been replaced with broad generalities. Some experts predict the US will continue to play lip service to the UN while turning its focus to other international institutions whose members are more like-minded with the United States, or which are not encumbered by universal membership that allow dictatorships an equal voice with democracies.