In her farewell speech to the UN, the outgoing US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, has sharply criticised Iraq and Burma and expressed concern at the growing material divide which threatens every nation.
Speaking in the debate at the 55th General Assembly, which began at UN headquarters yesterday, she said the world must stand up to "the campaign launched by Baghdad against the UN's authority and international law" by Iraq's refusal to permit UN monitoring of its weapons.
"The regime's strategy is to ignore its UN Charter obligations, and seek to preserve at all costs its capacity to produce the deadliest weapons humanity has ever known." While efforts to ease the hardships faced by the Iraqi people must continue, US policy on sanctions remained unchanged because it was necessary to "defend the integrity of this institution [the UN], our security and international law".
On the recent house arrest of the elected leader of Burma by the military junta and its refusal to permit Aung San Suu Kyi to take office, Mrs Albright commented: "When the Burmese government tries to blame the victims for the crime and say that Aung San Suu Kyi and her party are responsible for their own repression, I can only reply that much the same was once said about Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Vaclav Havel. The world is not fooled. And we must not be silent."
She indicated broad US support for the recent UN report on peacekeeping and called for rapid improvements in this area.
Welcoming recent Security Council proposals to change the manner of assessing payments by member-states to the UN, she said a more equitable system would reduce the UN's over-reliance financially on the US while enabling her government to meet its outstanding obligations.
Later, at a news conference, the Secretary of State dismissed as "Alice in Wonderland" the claims of religious groups and others that US-inspired sanctions were starving the Iraqi people.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, who arrived in New York on Monday night to attend his first UN General Assembly, took part in a breakfast meeting with fellow foreign ministers from the EU. The main topics for discussion were the situations in the Middle East and the western Balkans.
Speaking of behalf of the EU, the French Foreign Minister, Mr Hubert Vedrine, told the General Assembly that, under its current leadership, Yugoslavia would be barred from attending a planned EU summit with western Balkan countries in November.
"The nature of its present regime does not allow it. But the Serbs know that they have their place in the European family and that the EU is looking forward to the day when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is in a position to participate fully in the stabilisation and association process and recover its rightful place in Europe," he said. The elections on September 24th would be "decisive" in this respect.
The EU also called on both sides in the Middle East negotiations "to have the political courage to make the final effort that will enable them to reach an historic agreement". The declaration praises the efforts of Mr Clinton and Ms Albright and encourages them to "remain mobilised" and continue their mediation efforts.
The 55th General Assembly is presided over by the former Finnish prime minister, Mr Harri Holkeri, who was also one of the three independent chairmen of the talks which led to the Belfast Agreement.
In his opening address, the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, said the debate might seem something of an anti-climax, but he viewed it as a chance for member-states to end the stalemate over reforming the Security Council, to fund the overhaul of UN peacekeeping operations, and to start implementing the priorities agreed at last week's Millennium Summit.
"Clearly, there is broad consensus on what needs to be done, broader than many people would have expected in so large and diverse an organisation. What is vital now, however, is that we also agree on the means of doing it, and that we equip ourselves with the right tools. In particular, it is vital that this organisation, the United Nations itself, should be capable of playing the role that the world's people expect of it."