Are the US media demoni sing Kofi Annan? A surprising question, perhaps, to ask about the intelligent, softspoken, nice man from Ghana who has been running the United Nations for two years and who is today in Dublin. Still, it was a query his spokesman had to field a day or two ago.

Unadmiring US commentators have declared open season on the Secretary General. One of the more intemperate articles was titled "The Indecent Decent Man." Entering his third year at the UN helm, clearly Mr Annan's honeymoon is over.

With conservatives in the US Congress, it ended months ago. What sparked a more general shift in sentiment was an allegation attributed to unnamed confidants of Mr Annan, that UN weapons inspectors in Iraq used listening devices aimed directly at President Saddam Hussein which reported to Washington. Mr Annan was furious about it.

Lost in the furore were his repeated denials that he ever had the reported "convincing evidence" of these shenanigans, or any evidence at all. The charges remain unproved.

Disenchantment with Mr Annan, if that is not too strong a word, is not reflected in public opinion polls which still find an overwhelming majority of Americans favourably inclined towards the UN and its leader.

With US politicians, it began shortly after he and Mr Saddam - "a man I can do business with", he declared, somewhat rashly - agreed on a compromise plan to permit a resumption of forbidden weapons inspections. Congressional sceptics did not believe the accord would work. They were right.

Undaunted during another Iraq crisis, he put his prestige on the line last October with a direct appeal to Iraq to back down once more. US-British military action was deferred, but only for a month or two.

It was "a sad day for the UN and the world", he said, as 70 hours of bombing began after Mr Saddam again thumbed his nose. Beyond the material damage on the ground, a serious casualty has been unity on policy towards Iraq that existed, more or less, among the permanent members of the Security Council.

Since the Christmas-new year hiatus, the council has been trying, so far without much success, to restore its former collegiality.

Meanwhile, Mr Annan has lowered his own profile. Iraq is only one of his many problems. Just before he left for Dublin, he had to explain to doubtful African delegates, conscious of UN failures in Somalia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone and Liberia, why he recommended that most of the 900 UN military observers in Angola be withdrawn, beginning next month.

That decision became inevitable after two UN-chartered aircraft were downed in recent weeks in an area of intense hostilities between government and UNITA rebel troops, and Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos opposed renewing the peacekeeping mandate.

With the fate of hundreds of thousands of impoverished Angolans at stake, the Security Council may insist that humanitarian work continue.

Mr Annan got his job largely because the US had soured on Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the first secret ary general from Africa, and France's proteg e. Too arrogant, too independent and not committed to reform of "the bloated UN bureacracy", Washington said. In fact, the Egyptian former minister tried hard to accommodate US concerns and axed more than 1,000 posts, which Mr Annan has not managed to improve upon, but his public relations were terrible and not helped by an excessively formal manner and indifferent English.

In contrast, the Minnesota-schooled Mr Annan, who worked briefly for the cereal company General Mills, is solid US casual - down to his preference for turtleneck sweaters, blazers and flannel trousers.

US style, his address last Wednesday to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York - highlighted by a defence of his role in the Iraq mess and of his office - was peppered with first-name references to David (Rockefeller), Henry (Kissinger) and Pete (former US commerce secretary Petersen), among others.

As the Secretary-General namedropped, President Clinton in his State of the Union address was playing sweet music for UN ears: "The United Nations plays a crucial role, with allies sharing burdens America might otherwise bear alone. America needs a strong and effective UN. I want to work with this new Congress to pay our dues and our debts."

Grateful for small favours, Mr Annan welcomed those few words in the 77-minute speech, but he is not holding his breath over the debt, having been warned already that a cheque (for at least $1.5 billion owed for the regular budget and hundreds of millions for peacekeeping arrears) will not be in the mail any time soon - perhaps not even this year.

In the meantime, the UN struggles through by withholding repayment to troop-contributing countries, keeping vendors waiting and violating most norms of commercial exchange.

While Washington demands further reductions in UN staff in its pursuit of "reform", the Secretary General says he is down to the bone and any more cuts would be suicidal for UN programmes. The furore over alleged US spying raises a question whether Mr Annan has attracted the best political minds to his immediate circle, made up largely of time-servers from his peacekeeping days.

Almost certainly, one of these was a source for those leaks about alleged US spying in Iraq - "a blunder that embarrassed the Secretary General and the secretariat", UN spokesman Fred Eckhard acknowledged. "Everyone who might have been the source has been chastened by the experience we have all been through," he said.

Mr Boutros-Ghali would have moved heaven and earth to uncover the culprit. Not Mr Annan. "He is not into the witch hunts and we don't have a Scotland Yard to investigate," Mr Eckhard added.

Expect the Secretary General to ride out the storm. If someone in Washington wants to get him, he has the consolation of excellent relations with most of the 184 other national capitals. Asia, however, is clamouring for his job after his term expires at the end of 2001. Those close to him say he will not seek re-election, partly in deference to his Swedish wife, Nane, who finds the demands of his office too onerous.

Michael Littlejohns is a United Nations correspondent for the Financial Times and host of the UN television programme World Chronicle