Six years after bluntly warning the United Nations it risked irrelevance for not backing the Iraq war, US President George W. Bush on Tuesday hailed the world body's "extraordinary potential."
But Bush, who leaves office in four months, also used his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly to warn delegates that "inefficiency and corruption," "bloated" bureaucracy, and hypocrisy on human rights blunt UN promise.
"The United Nations is an organization of extraordinary potential. As the United Nations rebuilds its headquarters, it must also open the door to a new age of transparency, accountability, and seriousness of purpose," he said.
"With determination and clear purpose, the United Nations can be a powerful force for good as we head into the 21st century. It can affirm the great promise of its founding," the US president said in his 22-minute speech.
Bush, whose critics paint him as a swaggering cowboy with little use for multilateral diplomacy, took pains to emphasize that the United Nations "must stand united" against plagues like terrorism and poverty and in support of democracy and development.
"The United Nations and other multilateral organizations are needed more urgently than ever. To be successful, we must be focused and resolute and effective," said the US president.
Bush warned against "only passing resolutions decrying terrorist attacks after they occur" and calling for UN action to halt them in the first place, and warned against "treating all forms of government as equally tolerable."
He did not mention climate change, an issue UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made central to the organization's mission.
His parting shot at the world body -- a frequent target of his disdain, criticism and undisguised frustration, notably over violence in Darfur -- drew a polite response from an audience much accustomed to disagreeing with him.
In September 2002, Bush had warned assembled world leaders from the same podium that he would consider the United Nations "irrelevant" to world affairs if it refused to support war with Iraq.
"Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" he declared.
But Tuesday's speech was also notable for his relatively muted tone on issues from violence in Sudan's Darfur region to his push for overhauling the UN Human Rights Council -- both the source of sharp Bush rhetoric in the past.
Bush, who has decried the "slowness" of what he denounced as the "very bureaucratic" UN response to Darfur, declared that: "All nations, especially members of the Security Council, must act decisively to ensure that the government of Sudan upholds its commitment to address the violence in Darfur."
And he muted his usually fierce criticism of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which he blasted at the UN General Assembly in 2007 for focusing too much on Israel and being "silent on repression" in places like Iran.
"There should be an immediate review of the Human Rights Council, which has routinely protected violators of human rights," was all he said Tuesday.
While a top aide once said Bush dismissed the "small talk in big rooms" of international summitry, the US president said Tuesday that "the world needs a confident and effective United Nations," but warned the organization to clean up its act.
"Where there's inefficiency and corruption, it must be corrected. Where there are bloated bureaucracies, they must be streamlined. Where members fail to uphold their obligations, there must be strong action," he said.
But Bush, who leaves office in four months, also used his farewell speech to the UN General Assembly to warn delegates that "inefficiency and corruption," "bloated" bureaucracy, and hypocrisy on human rights blunt UN promise.
"The United Nations is an organization of extraordinary potential. As the United Nations rebuilds its headquarters, it must also open the door to a new age of transparency, accountability, and seriousness of purpose," he said.
"With determination and clear purpose, the United Nations can be a powerful force for good as we head into the 21st century. It can affirm the great promise of its founding," the US president said in his 22-minute speech.
Bush, whose critics paint him as a swaggering cowboy with little use for multilateral diplomacy, took pains to emphasize that the United Nations "must stand united" against plagues like terrorism and poverty and in support of democracy and development.
"The United Nations and other multilateral organizations are needed more urgently than ever. To be successful, we must be focused and resolute and effective," said the US president.
Bush warned against "only passing resolutions decrying terrorist attacks after they occur" and calling for UN action to halt them in the first place, and warned against "treating all forms of government as equally tolerable."
He did not mention climate change, an issue UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has made central to the organization's mission.
His parting shot at the world body -- a frequent target of his disdain, criticism and undisguised frustration, notably over violence in Darfur -- drew a polite response from an audience much accustomed to disagreeing with him.
In September 2002, Bush had warned assembled world leaders from the same podium that he would consider the United Nations "irrelevant" to world affairs if it refused to support war with Iraq.
"Are Security Council resolutions to be honored and enforced, or cast aside without consequence? Will the United Nations serve the purpose of its founding, or will it be irrelevant?" he declared.
But Tuesday's speech was also notable for his relatively muted tone on issues from violence in Sudan's Darfur region to his push for overhauling the UN Human Rights Council -- both the source of sharp Bush rhetoric in the past.
Bush, who has decried the "slowness" of what he denounced as the "very bureaucratic" UN response to Darfur, declared that: "All nations, especially members of the Security Council, must act decisively to ensure that the government of Sudan upholds its commitment to address the violence in Darfur."
And he muted his usually fierce criticism of the United Nations Human Rights Council, which he blasted at the UN General Assembly in 2007 for focusing too much on Israel and being "silent on repression" in places like Iran.
"There should be an immediate review of the Human Rights Council, which has routinely protected violators of human rights," was all he said Tuesday.
While a top aide once said Bush dismissed the "small talk in big rooms" of international summitry, the US president said Tuesday that "the world needs a confident and effective United Nations," but warned the organization to clean up its act.
"Where there's inefficiency and corruption, it must be corrected. Where there are bloated bureaucracies, they must be streamlined. Where members fail to uphold their obligations, there must be strong action," he said.
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