- After five months of wrangling and recriminations, US
President George W Bush has forced through the appointment of his UN ambassador
while Congress is in recess.
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- But the move may just be the start of the controversy
over John Bolton, whose hard-nosed management style and past criticisms
of the UN have angered critics.
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- Mr Bolton's appointment comes just six weeks before UN
heads of state and governments meet in New York to discuss wide-ranging
and potentially divisive reforms of the world body.
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- There are fears that just as the US is reaching out diplomatically
in other ways, its hard-edged position at the UN will be entrenched.
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- Domestically, it is certain to inflame the partisan ill-feeling
between Republicans and Democrats, just as senators are considering Mr
Bush's choice for the new Supreme Court justice.
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- Mr Bolton - who once said that if the UN building lost
10 storeys, it would not make a bit of difference - was nominated to the
post in March.
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- But opponents held up his confirmation, accusing him
of trying to manipulate intelligence and intimidate analysts who disagreed
with him.
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- 'Damaged goods'
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- Leading Democrats have hit out at the president's use
of rarely-invoked constitutional powers to push through the appointment.
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- Senator Edward Kennedy said it was a "devious manoeuvre
that evades the constitutional requirement of Senate consent and only further
darkens the cloud over Mr Bolton's credibility at the UN".
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- Earlier, Christopher Dodd, a senior Democrat on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, described Mr Bolton as "damaged goods".
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- One leading expert on US politics told the BBC the appointment
would be unlikely to lead to a deterioration in political relations, "because
it is hard to see how things could be any worse than they are now".
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- But Thomas Mann, a senior fellow in Governance Studies
at the Brookings Institution, told the BBC: "The irony is that as
Condoleezza Rice works to try to put some life into American diplomacy
you have a move like this that sends an entirely different signal.
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- "It reinforces the president's standing among hardliners
in his party and means that whatever accommodation Condoleezza Rice is
making to the world, the US will still have a very hard-edged position
at the United Nations.
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- "It is a way of getting one of their real tough
guys front and centre."
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- UN reform
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- The September summit represents a key moment for the
UN which has been reeling from the rows over the US-led invasion of Iraq
and from corruption scandals over the Iraqi oil-for-food programme.
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- Reform has the dual challenge of re-establishing confidence
in the institution, and of re-engaging the United States - the UN's largest
member and the greatest contributor to its coffers.
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- Some - including the president - say Mr Bolton is exactly
what the UN needs if it is serious about reform.
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- The president said "partisan delaying tactics"
had left the US without a permanent UN representative for too long.
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- As he appeared with Mr Bush to accept his appointment,
Mr Bolton pledged to work to make the body a "stronger, more effective
organisation", and one that is "agile enough to act in the 21st
Century".
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- He is certainly expected to be a very different ambassador
to his predecessor.
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- Former Senator John Danforth's ringing endorsements of
the UN were not always shared by the Bush administration.
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- In one of his last speeches in January he urged: "It's
very important, I think the stronger you are, to be a country that listens
and that takes onboard the views of others even though we may not end up
agreeing with those views."
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- Meanwhile, one of the most persistent critics of the
UN, Senator Norm Coleman, who chairs a congressional inquiry into the oil-for-food
programme, said last week that the controversy over Mr Bolton would soon
become irrelevant.
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- The bottom line, he said, was that Bolton had the confidence
of the president, and would be in the post until January 2007 at the earliest.
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- "He will speak for the president of the United States.
He will speak for America."
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- JOHN BOLTON
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- * Yale Law School graduate
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- * As assistant secretary of state under George Bush senior,
helped organise anti-Saddam alliance
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- * Made under-secretary of state for arms control and
international security in May 2001
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- * In July 2003, condemned North Korean leader Kim Jong-il
for living like royalty while people lived in "hellish nightmare"
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- © BBC MMV
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- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4735459.stm
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