The United States has come under fire at a UN conference for its opposition to abortion and contraception.
Rights groups and ministers attending the conference of more than 30 countries in the Asia-Pacific said Washington's position put the health of millions of women in the region at risk.
"The impact of such an extreme agenda - if approved - would be both brutal and unjust for the women and families of this region," Terri Bartlett, vice president of Population Action International said in a statement at the conference.
UN members have negotiated for much of the past decade towards an international agreement in support of family planning and the promotion of safe sex to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS and to prevent unplanned pregnancies.
Supporters of the agreement say a deal was ready to be signed but the United States said this week it objected to some clauses that implied support for abortion and contraception that the Bush administration opposes.
The Republican US government, backed by evangelical Christian groups in the United States, is strongly opposed to abortion and argues the best form of family planning is abstinence from sex.
Washington wants to delete language calling attention to the impact of unsafe abortions on women's health, and a reference to "consistent condom use" as a means of reducing HIV infection.
But Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of the United Nations Population Fund, said in a speech today, that the International Conference for Population Development (ICPD) programme did not imply support for abortion.
"The phrase 'reproductive health services' is not code for the promotion or support for 'abortion services'," she said.
Mr Eugene Dewey, US State Department Assistant Secretary for Population, Refugees and Migration, told a news conference the US effort to amend the pact's language to comply with its own laws had been hit by a "horrendous disinformation campaign".