U.N. Hosts Largest Summit of Leaders

The largest gathering ever of world leaders, great and obscure, opened here Wednesday with President Clinton calling for nations to better equip the United Nations to prevent war, make peace and take sides when it must.

“Fifty-five years ago, the U.N. was formed to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war. Today there are more people in this room with the power to achieve that goal than have ever been gathered in one place,” the president said in a speech launching three days of intense diplomacy at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York.

The summit opened on a dark note, with the news that at least three U.N. workers were killed in West Timor earlier in the day, underlining the challenges--and failures--of the world body. After a moment of silence for those slain by a mob angered by a militia leader’s death, Clinton began a speech hastily rewritten to focus on making peace.

The world must work to end conflicts not only between nations but also within them, he said.

“The last century taught us that there are times when the international community must take a side,” he said, “not merely stand between the sides or on the sidelines.”

Referring to the failure of U.N. soldiers to prevent massacres of civilians in Somalia, Rwanda and Bosnia-Herzegovina, often blamed on a lack of force or mandate, Clinton urged the assembly to give peacekeepers “the tools to finish the job.” That means, he said, peacekeepers who can be deployed quickly, with better training and equipment and a well-defined mission.

Those improvements come with a price tag, he said. He acknowledged that the more than $1 billion owed by the U.S. for peacekeeping costs, which has been held up by congressional critics, must be paid.

Clinton spent the rest of the day doing his part to help make peace. He stayed over to hear Iranian President Mohammad Khatami’s address about democracy, signaling U.S. interest in repairing ties broken in 1979. Clinton signed an agreement with President Vladimir V. Putin that the U.S. and Russia would notify each other before launching ballistic missiles.

And Clinton trod the corridor between the rooms of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, trying to nudge the two closer to agreement on issues that have derailed peace talks.

Clinton asked for other countries’ help in persuading Barak and Arafat to find common ground. “They have the chance to do it,” he said. “But like all life’s chances, it is fleeting and about to pass.”

Secretary-General Kofi Annan convened the Millennium Summit to chart a new vision for the embattled world organization. His declaration calling together the leaders set 2015 as the target date for reducing by half the number of people who live on less than $1 a day and pledged to reverse the spread of AIDS while ensuring that the benefits of globalization are more justly spread.

Copies of the draft resolution were handed out to leaders six months ago so that they could come to the summit prepared to commit their countries to the goals.

Putin, who came to power with the resignation Dec. 31 of former Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, used his speech to indirectly criticize U.S. proposals to create a national missile defense system.

“The new century of the United Nations must . . . go down in history as a period of real disarmament,” Putin said, underscoring Russian concerns that such a defense system will feed an arms race and violate the 1972 Antiballistic Missile Treaty.

Of the more than 150 leaders attending the summit, 74 had their own fleeting chance at the microphone on the opening day to address the assembly. Speeches were limited to five minutes, with a mini-traffic light flashing yellow, then red when a speaker ran over deadline. Clinton spoke for about eight minutes. Antiguan Prime Minister Lester Bird dragged on for nearly half an hour.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, known for his seven-hour addresses, draped a handkerchief over the signal lights, drawing laughter. But he managed to denounce capitalism, demand American recognition of Cuba and call for an end to the U.S. economic embargo against his nation--all within seven minutes.

Annan toasted the gathering at a sumptuous French luncheon, sitting--perhaps symbolically--under a freshly patched stretch of ceiling that had collapsed Monday.

“You have the authority to speak for and ability to transform the lives of [the world’s] 6 billion people,” Annan said. “I invite you to consider the enormity of that thought. From what I saw and heard this morning, we are on the right track. I hope we can keep the momentum going.”

The leaders of the U.S., China, Russia, France and Nigeria sat with Annan at the head table--an opportunity for a mini-summit over smoked salmon. And indeed, as much summit action is occurring in the corridors and at lunch tables as in the official chambers.

The halls of the U.N. are brimming with goodwill. Pakistani military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf, in his first appearance at the United Nations, offered talks with India “at any level, at any time and anywhere” to resolve the two nations’ dispute over the territory of Kashmir.

South Korean President Kim Dae Jung said he was still eager to meet again with North Korean officials to bring peace to the divided peninsula, still technically in a state of war.

Though the North Korean delegation canceled its trip to the summit Tuesday in anger over a pat-down search by U.S. personnel at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, Kim said that “warm sunshine” is melting some of the ice between the two Koreas.

While leaders met, about 2,000 followers of the Falun Gong spiritual movement marched from China’s U.N. mission to U.N. headquarters to protest Beijing’s crackdown against the sect.

Today and Friday, the leaders who have not yet addressed the assembly will have their chance.

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Times staff writer Norman Kempster contributed to this report.

* NO MIDEAST PROGRESS

Clinton’s meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders fail to restart peace process. A6