| Bush to address United Nations |
Published By: Mathew White
On Tuesday 23 September 2008 |
President George Bush will suggest ways in which the United Nations (UN) could be improved in his final speech to the world body.
Global leaders are in New York for the UN General Assembly's annual meeting and Mr Bush will make his last appearance before the UN as president of the US.
Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose nuclear programme will be discussed on the sidelines of the session, is also expected to speak after increasing tensions between his country and the US.
US National Security advisor Stephen Hadley said Mr Bush's speech "will highlight the current challenges facing multilateral organisations like the UN and how to improve the ability of these organisations to meet these challenges".
"He'll talk about the need to focus on results," Mr Hadley said. "You've heard him say he's kind of an outcomes guy, not a process guy, and sometimes we spend too much time on the process and not enough time on the outcomes."
Mr Bush's speech comes at a time when many of the collective diplomatic ventures he has championed face problems.
The West is trying to restrain an increasingly aggressive Russia that drew condemnation for its recent invasion of US-backed Georgia.
A prickly North Korea is backing away from pledges to abandon nuclear weapons. A Palestinian-Israeli peace pact before Mr Bush leaves office is highly unlikely.
Violence is flaring in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And Iran is pursuing its nuclear work in defiance of US and international demands.
Its president Mr Ahmadinejad stepped up his own anti-US rhetoric on Sunday, saying that his nation's military would "break the hand" of any aggressor that targets his country's nuclear facilities.
