US Senate Approves Deal with UN on DuesThe US Senate on Wednesday approves a deal allowing the United States to pay its debts to the United Nations in return for cuts in the US share of the world body's budget.The Senate voted unanimously to make a payment of 582 million US dollars, part of the dues in arrears, to the United Nations. The United States still owes 224 million US dollars to the world body and is obliged to pay the dues by the end of 2002 after some additional reforms at the United Nations. The House of Representatives is expected to follow suit to approve the deal soon, which will end a contentious dispute that had frayed relations between the US and the United Nations for years. Under the deal, UN members agreed in December to cut the US general dues assessment from 25 percent to 22 percent of the 1.1 billion dollar annual administrative budget, and a separate assessment for peacekeeping from 31 percent to about 27 percent this year and 26.5 percent by 2003. |
| People's Daily Online --- http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/ |