Six months after the US invasion of Iraq, world leaders criticised US President George W. Bush's doctrine of "pre-emptive" war and voiced scepticism over his appeal for help to rebuild Iraq.
Despite conciliatory comments from several ministers, the scars from the diplomatic battle over the Iraq war were evident from Indonesia to Brazil yesterday, the opening day of the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial session.
And today, Mr Gerhard Schroeder, the first German chancellor since 1973 to address the assembly, will probably stress the importance of multilateralism, diplomats said.
But he is expected to do so in milder terms than French President Jacques Chirac, who chastised the Bush administration for taking international law into its own hand.
Mr Bush, whose approval ratings have slumped partly due to the soaring costs of the occupation, offered no apology for the chaotic security situation or the failure to find weapons of mass destruction, cited as the main reason for the war.
The United States is rewriting its proposed Security Council resolution that calls for UN authorisation for a multinational force in an effort to attract troops and other aid from countries unwilling to be part of an occupying force.
The draft, circulated early this month, says a timetable leading to Iraqi sovereignty has to be set by the 25-member Iraqi Governing Council. The document calls on the United Nations to assist the council in writing a constitution and planning elections in cooperation with occupying powers.
Mr Chirac wants an immediate symbolic act of Iraqi sovereignty and has demanded a timetable for handing over power within months in a process supervised by the United Nations.
He and Bush apparently failed to narrow their differences in private talks after their speeches, but France has said it would not veto the resolution.
Mr Bush received a polite ovation but it was Mr Chirac who won sustained applause. South African President Mr Thabo Mbeki said the Iraqi crisis put into stark relief "the very future of the United Nations." U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan set the tone in his opening keynote speech, saying that the Bush administration's doctrine of pre-emptive military intervention could lead to the law of the jungle.
He said it called into question the entire international system of collective action, which needed to be re-examined, and "could set precedents that resulted in a proliferation of the unilateral and lawless use of force."