World leaders united this evening to demand a global ban on incitement to terrorism but they fell short of ambitions for a fundamental reform of the UN at a summit on its 60th anniversary.
The 15-member Security Council, a symbol of the inability to adapt the world organization to the 21st century, held a rare top-level session to adopt a resolution on terrorism proposed by Britain following the July 7th London bombings.
Kofi Annan
"We have a solemn obligation to stop terrorism at its early stages," US President George W. Bush told the session. "We must do all we can to disrupt each stage of planning and support for terrorist acts."
But Secretary-General Kofi Annan told the gathering of kings, presidents and prime ministers that despite some progress, negotiators had failed to achieve the profound overhaul of UN policies and institutions he sought.
It was inexcusable that nations had failed to agree on a common approach to the spread of weapons of mass destruction, one of the greatest security threats of the 21st century, he told the 153 leaders in an opening address.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin served a reminder of the topicality of the issue, warning Iran that it faced referral to the UN Security Council unless it met its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Tehran insists it has the right to enrich uranium for what it says is a civilian nuclar programme, but Western nations suspect it of a clandestine drive to develop an atom bomb.
Mr Annan said it was a breakthrough that the international community had agreed for the first time it had a responsibility to intervene to protect civilians against genocide, war crimes and ethnic cleansing.
"But let us be frank with each other, and the peoples of the United Nations. We have not yet achieved the sweeping and fundamental reform that I and many others believe is required,"
Mr Annan told a sprawling gathering overshadowed by a scandal over abuses of the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Mr Bush referred obliquely to the scandal, saying the United Nations must be "free of corruption, and accountable to the people it serves" and practice the high moral standards it preached.
The US leader focused on his priorities of spreading democracy and eliminating barriers to free trade, as well as using military force, to defeat terrorism and transform the troubled Middle East.
Addressing a world body whose members are still deeply divided over the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, he insisted Iraqis were on the road to building a model democracy despite yet another day of bloodshed in Baghdad in which more than 150 people were killed.