Holbrooke praises Turner for donation to U.N.

Turner

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- A $34 million gift to the United Nations by CNN founder Ted Turner allowed the United Nations on Friday to achieve badly needed reforms and the U.S. to reduce its share of the U.N. budget, U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said.

The United States has been pushing to reduce its contribution to the United Nations budget from 25 percent to 22 percent.

In overnight negotiations, U.N. members agreed to drop the U.S. contribution to 22 percent in 2001, using Turner's $34 million to cover the shortfall between what Congress has agreed to and the 25 percent the United States has been paying.

The U.S. contribution to the peackeeping budget, said Holbrooke, will start around 27 percent but will decrease under the new agreement.

"I think that Ted Turner's offer ... provided us with the flexibility he had intended it to... This was not simply the case of a rich person giving money to build a building. It was money to change a situation," Holbrooke said.

He said without the gift the U.N. faced failing to reach agreement on a new budget for the first time in its history.

"In the end what drove the process is that we were facing defeat. This would have been the first time in U.N. history that we didn't have a budget on time," he said.

Nations around the globe fought the U.S. move to cut its contribution because they would have to make up the difference, according to Holbrooke. Many of them, he said, flatly refused. "We are not going to pay more so you can pay less," Holbrooke quoted European Union representatives as saying.

Many nations, he said, complained they had already adopted their budgets based on the idea the United States would contribute 25 percent of the U.N. budget in 2001.

The United States owes the U.N. $1.8 billion in back dues. Congress had pegged the payment of $926 million of that money to reforms at the U.N.

Many nations agreed to step forward to pick up the money the United States is cutting back, said Holbrooke. He said China will increase contributions under the agreement to the regular U.N. budget by 55 percent and to the peacekeeping budget by around 60 percent.

He said Russia also agreed to pay more than its economic figures would dictate it should pay.

Some developing countries will begin contributing more immediately with others kicking in more money over time.

He said the negotiations were intense and complex, ending around 5 a.m. Friday.

Holbrooke said Turner made an offer six weeks ago to give $34 million on a one-time only basis to ease the U.N. through the transition until the 2002 budget.

Holbrooke said he had informed Colin Powell, President-elect George W. Bush's nominee for secretary of state, about the offer and the agreement. He said members of Congress had also been briefed.

In the end, Holbrooke said, the Turner gift gives the United States and the U.N. breathing room to work out reforms, cut the U.S. contribution and work out the payment of its back dues.

"He said I will make available $34 million if those $34 million will make it possible for us to get the deal and reform the U.N.," said Holbrooke. "It was the most sophisticated use of philanthropic funds for a larger purpose that I can imagine.

"People give money all the time, and I commend them for it, but you have to go a long way to find a gift that meant as much difference as this one."

Turner stunned the U.N. three years ago when he donated $1 billion to the world organization.

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