US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell said yesterday he was working to secure $582 million from Congress to pay this year's US arrears to the United Nations.
Speaking in an interview with CNN, Mr Powell said: "I'm working very hard to get this money, and for the most part everything is moving along well". He said he hoped the payment would be made before President Mr George W. Bush addresses the UN General Assembly in September.
"There are one or two congressional problems that we have to resolve, and the money will be forthcoming. I am trying to get those problems resolved before the president goes on September 24th. I think it would be a much more powerful statement for the president to go on September 24th with the check as opposed to without the check," he said.
UN Secretary-General Mr Kofi Annan said on Tuesday UN member states would be baffled and Washington would undermine its effectiveness at the United Nations if it does not pay the money ahead of the speech.
On Wednesday, his spokesman, Mr Fred Eckhard, said UN members find it difficult to understand why, seven months after agreement was reached, no cheque has been put in the mail.
Mr Annan, also in a CNN interview, said: "It doesn't help that a country in a leadership position, a country that has an important role to play and would want other countries and allies to work with them and to agree with them on certain issues, doesn't pay its debt".
The Senate and the House of Representatives have approved the arrears in different forms but are unlikely to agree on common language before September, after the summer recess.