UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — The General Assembly early Saturday approved a two-year UN budget of 4.17 billion dollars (2.9 billion euros) but the United States cast a lone dissenting vote.
After marathon overnight talks, 141 members endorsed the recommendation of the assembly's budgetary committee to support UN chief Ban Ki-moon's request for the 2008-2009 budget, up 0.5 percent from the previous one.
The United States voted against because it objected to a 6.7 million-dollar outlay in the budget to fund a follow-up to a 2001 world conference on racism and racial discrimination which it viewed as anti-Israel.
The US delegation withdrew from the 2001 conference on racism in Durban, South Africa, because it felt that the parley singled out Israel "for censure and abuse" and suggested that apartheid existed in the Jewish state.
In recent days, US diplomats here also complained that the 25 percent increase in the administrative part of the budget was too high.
The United States is the world body's largest contributor, covering around 22 percent of the regular budget.
Ban welcomed the adoption of the budget by the assembly but expressed regret that "the resolution was not adopted by consensus, marking a break with tradition after 20 years."
"The Secretary General urges all member states to return to consensus decision-making and to demonstrate a greater sense of flexibility and compromise, beyond individual national interests and in the common cause of multilateralism for the good of humankind," his press office said in a statement.
Separately, the assembly approved 1.28 billion dollars to fund the proposed UN-African Union 26,000-strong peacekeeping force for Sudan's war-torn Darfur region until next June 30.
It also appropriated 182.44 million dollars for a UN force to be deployed in Chad and the Central African Republic to protect civilians from the spillover of the Darfur conflict.
In outlining his proposed budget in October, Ban vowed to pursue reforms to make the world body leaner, nimbler and more efficient.
He then told the assembly's budgetary panel that his proposed budget for 2008-2009, up 23 millions dollars, "is not much, considering the demands upon us."
Among the major challenges facing the UN, he cited financing for the joint UN-AU force for Darfur, other UN missions in the Democratic Republic of Congo or Somalia as well as the fight against global poverty, HIV/AIDS or climate change.
"Never has the world so needed a strong United Nations. Yet never have resources been stretched so thin," Ban then said, underscoring the need for "careful fiscal management" and internal changes to make the UN "faster, more flexible and more efficient in delivering better results with the limited assets at our disposal."
The UN budget is funded with contributions from the organization's 192 member states based on their respective ability to pay, taking into account factors such as national income, population and level of debt.
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