Bush seeks U.N. support on democracy
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-14 18:07

Before skeptical world leaders, President Bush is seeking to sell the global community on his blueprint for spreading democracy in Iraq and elsewhere, overhauling the United Nations and expanding free trade, the Associated Press reported. 

There is broad opposition to the U.S.-led war in Iraq among the more than 160 presidents, prime ministers and kings gathered for three days of U.N. General Assembly meetings. Many leaders also would rather hear Bush finally relent and support an international treaty on global warming or promise to donate foreign aid at a level more proportionate to other rich nations.

But in his annual speech to the U.N. gathering Wednesday, Bush was hoping to impress upon his audience the urgency of addressing the world's problems as he sees them.

"This is a time of great challenge for America and the world," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. "We must work together in common purpose to advance freedom, ease suffering, and lay the foundations of lasting peace for our children and grandchildren."

The president, aides said, also was to try to persuade world leaders to partner in his second-term pledge to spread democracy, even in unlikely or unreceptive places, and was to tout U.S. efforts to battle AIDS in Africa and prevent a bird flu pandemic.

Bush also was aiming to boost efforts — already behind schedule because of concerns in developing countries — to reach a global trade agreement that would slash subsidies and reduce tariffs worldwide.

Bush switched to diplomatic duties after two weeks of nearly constant attention to the devastation from Hurricane Katrina. He held a White House meeting Tuesday with Iraq's president before flying here for two days at the United Nations and for one-on-one talks with allies. He continues the diplomacy Friday with a session back in Washington with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Katrina problem won't be far away, however: Bush scheduled a prime-time address from Louisiana on Thursday night and he was to give top billing in his General Assembly speech to thanking world leaders for their outpouring of money, equipment and other aid.

Bush arrived here with the lowest approval ratings of his presidency and the perception that his administration had mishandled hurricane relief. He said he took responsibility for whatever had gone wrong.

The degree to which Katrina's impact was felt throughout the summit was apparent when it was the first thing Chinese President Hu Jintao brought up at the start of his meeting Tuesday with Bush.

"May the American people overcome the disaster and renew their beautiful homes at an early date," Hu said through a translator, to a grim nod from Bush.

From Hu, Bush won a pledge to step up pressure on North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons. But the Chinese leader did not embrace a U.S. proposal to bring Iran before the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions for its nuclear programs, said Mike Green, the National Security Council's senior director for Asia.

After his speech Wednesday, Bush was sitting down with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who is fresh off his historic evacuation of Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip. Israel withdrew the last of its troops from Gaza on Monday and handed control to the Palestinians, a move that is seen as a test for Palestinian aspirations for an independent state.

However, chaos has followed as abandoned settlements were looted and thousands rushed back and forth across the Gaza-Egyptian border.

Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, already one of the staunchest allies of the president's foreign policy, were meeting with new affinity over the anti-terror battle since the deadly bus and subway bombings in London in July.

At a time when polls show sliding support for the war in Iraq, the president was offering in his U.N. speech a fresh defense of his policies in a country trying to hold on to a fragile democracy.

One recent poll found a majority of Americans want Iraq spending cut back and some troops brought home to help with the Katrina response. But, Bush said Tuesday, "I pledge we will not waver."

The president's attendance at the U.N. meetings came as leaders were being presented with a plan for addressing poverty and reforming the world body, which the Bush administration has long viewed as ineffective bureaucracy in dire need of a management overhaul.

But the final document was stripped of the most ambitious goals, for example leaving out a definition of terrorism, any mention of nuclear nonproliferation and details on how to replace the discredited U.N. Commission on Human Rights, and diluting the section on making over U.N. management.

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