Rice makes debut at UN, shuns media queries

UNITED NATIONS - Condoleezza Rice, on her first trip to the United Nations since becoming secretary of state, made clear that enlarging the Security Council should not override other UN reforms, US officials said.

Rice, who unlike her predecessor Colin Powell steered clear of speaking to the UN-based media, spent some 35 minutes with Secretary-General Kofi Annan and 40 minutes with General Assembly President Jean Ping.

UN and US officials would not say whether the embattled nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, was mentioned. Bolton is a harsh critic of the world body, and his nomination has not yet passed the US Senate.

A United Nations statement said Rice and Annan discussed Iraq, Lebanon, Uzbekistan, Kosovo and Sudan. Annan also brought up the need for great military support in Haiti.

With Ping, however, Rice stressed that the contentious issue of UN Security Council enlargement should not take precedence over other US priorities -- management reform, a revamping of the main human rights body, a new peace-building commission and a democracy fund.

"We made a pitch that we need to see progress on other UN reforms before Security Council expansion," a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Annan has proposed an ambitious programme, entitled In Larger Freedom, to overhaul the United Nations on development, security, human rights and other programmes. Ping has been drafting documents that are to be approved at a UN world summit in September.

However, Ping can do little to kill a resolution to enlarge the Security Council should its sponsors want to push it. Germany, Japan, Brazil and India, contenders for permanent seats, want a vote next month to enlarge the council to 25 members.

The State Department only recently stepped into the fray for the first time, saying it only supported Japan and that the council should not have more than 20 seats.

The United States has only one vote in the General Assembly. But the threshold for approving Security Council expansion is high -- two-thirds of 191 members. The four contenders appear to have a majority but not two-thirds.

Rice was more effusive earlier in the day when she spoke at a rally for the delegation attending next week's International Olympic Committee meeting in Singapore. New York wants to stage the 2012 summer Olympics .

"This is a story of a city that refuses to quit," she told a crowd in front of New York's City Hall.

- REUTERS