UN 2-fer/ Annan outlines global conflicts;angered at media|Annan to Focus on Poverty for Final Year

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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Terrorism and conflicts across the Middle East will be major global issues in 2006, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at a year-end news conference on Wednesday and he also lashed out at the media for its coverage of the oil-for-food program.

Annan said he faced getting tough management reform proposals through the U.N. General Assembly and trying to solve the ongoing conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

But he said he expected terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and the Middle East -- the slayings in Lebanon, the ongoing Israel-Palestinian conflict and the turmoil in Iraq -- to be "a major issue for us."

The usually unruffled U.N. chief castigated what he called unfair media coverage of his role and that of his son's in the now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food humanitarian program in Iraq.

He scolded James Bone of the Times of London for saying, "Your own version of events don't really make sense."

Annan responded: "I think you're being very cheeky. Listen James Bone, you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious subject."

The president of the U.N. Correspondents Association said that Bone had a right to ask a question.

Annan said not enough weight was given to bribes and oil smuggling outside of the $64 billion program, recently documented by a U.N.-established inquiry, headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker.

"We all have to be careful, whatever responsibilities we have, not to be fed by people with agendas."

Asked again if he bought a Mercedes tax-free for his son, Kojo, with his diplomatic discount, Annan said, "I know you are all obsessed about the car. If you want to know more about it, please address yourself to my son or his lawyer."

"I am neither his spokesman or his lawyer," he said. "The report of Paul Volcker is clear. I am not going to rehash it."

Annan, whose second five-year term ends in December 2006, had some advice for the man or woman who will succeed him.

"They need a thick skin. They need a sense of humor, and they should laugh a lot inside and outside and at themselves ... and be able to reach out and work effectively with leaders across the world," Annan said.

Asked about his regrets, Annan said he was sorry he was not able to avert the war in Iraq in 2003.

"If I go back in recent years, one thing I would have liked to see ... is for us to have done everything that we could have done to avoid a war in Iraq that has brought such division within this organization and the international community," Annan said.

"And that is one thing that I must say still haunts me and bothers me that, as an organization, as an international community, we were not able to do."

Annan also said he hoped the U.N.'s biennial budget, now in contention, would be adopted by the end of the year, or the world body would face a financial crisis.

He spoke in favor of revamping the 15-member U.N. Security Council, another proposal that has run into resistance from U.N. members, and the necessity to form a new human rights council and abolish the discredited 53-nation U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.

Edith M. Lederer - ap

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UNITED NATIONS - After a tumultuous year for the world, for the United Nations and for himself, Kofi Annan said Wednesday that he wants to spend his final year as U.N. secretary-general fighting poverty and promoting peace and U.N. reform.

At a year-end press conference, Annan lashed out at what he said was unfair media coverage of his and his son's role in the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, and told reporters that they had missed the big story. That, he said, was the charge that more than 2,200 companies and individuals from some 40 countries paid kickbacks or illegal surcharges to Saddam Hussein's government to get contracts.

"I'm not afraid of criticism," the secretary-general told reporters. "Some criticisms have been constructive and helpful and I accept that. Some have been out of place and have really gone beyond the zone of all reasonableness, and you wouldn't expect me or anybody in this house to accept that."

It was a rare outburst for the U.N. chief, who was cleared by an 18-month investigation of influencing an oil-for-food contract that went to a company that employed his son, Kojo. Annan was strongly criticized for his management of the $64 billion program.

Former Federal Reserve Chief Paul Volcker issued his final report in late October, but questions arising from the investigation have continued to dog Annan's spokesman at the U.N.'s daily press briefing.

At Wednesday's press conference, one of the most persistent questioners, James Bone of The Times of London, mentioned a Mercedes-Benz that Kojo Annan imported into Ghana using his father's diplomatic immunity to avoid taxes and customs duty, and said some of the secretary-general's accounts of oil-for-food related events, "don't really make sense."

"I think you're being very cheeky," Annan interrupted. "Listen James Bone, you've been behaving like an overgrown schoolboy in this room for many, many months and years. You are an embarrassment to your colleagues and to your profession. Please stop misbehaving and please let's move on to a serious journalist."

The president of the U.N. Correspondents Association told Annan that Bone had a right to ask a question and was not an embarrassment.

Bone walked out and said later: "The Volcker report raises many serious questions about the integrity of the U.N., and it's important that public officials paid with taxpayer money answer these questions fully and without accusing the press."

Annan's public rebuke came amid heightened tensions at the U.N. over a new budget and the pace of management reforms, issues that have deeply divided the organization's 191 member states.

Looking ahead to the final year of his second five-year term, Annan said there were "three priority areas I will focus on next year: the fight against poverty and disease, peace and security, and reform of the United Nations."

He said other major issues for the U.N. would be terrorism and the situation in the Middle East, including Iraq, Lebanese-Syrian relations and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"We also should keep a very close eye" on the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and developments in Congo, he said.

Annan, who shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the United Nations in 2001, said "there's always a second-term curse ... and one overcomes it and moves on."

Asked about his legacy, Annan pointed to efforts to fight poverty and HIV/ AIDS, to bring the private sector and civil society into partnerships with the U.N. and to promote peace and security.

"But I will leave others to judge, and I think history will judge us quite fairly," he said.

The secretary-general returned to the oil-for-food program when asked if there was something the U.N. should not become involved with in the future.

"I have said very clearly that I hope U.N. will never be asked to take on an operation of that kind again," he said.

As for regrets, Annan went back to the most divisive issue in his stewardship of the U.N. — the bitter 2003 debate over going to war in Iraq, which the Security Council refused to authorize.

"That has brought such division within this organization and the international community," he said. "That is one thing that I must say still haunts me and bothers me."

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Wednesday the search for a successor to Annan will be a top priority next year and Washington is looking for "a superior administrative officer."

Annan said the next secretary-general should have other attributes as well, because he or she will be "the chief diplomat of the world."

"They need thick skin — thick skin," he said. "They need a sense of humor, and they should laugh inside and outside, and at themselves."

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