The UN is to meet in New York tomorrow for a key summit focusing on combating global poverty and reforming the institution itself, writes Rosalind Ryan.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, has called the gathering "an opportunity for all humankind", but there are fears it could collapse before it has even begun.
Its main aim is to work out how to progress the Millennium Development Goals - key targets on issues such as education, health and hunger agreed at the UN millennium summit in 2000.
You can find out more about the Millennium Goals in this stunning gallery of photographs from around the world, compiled by Guardian Unlimited in conjunction with Panos Pictures.
These pictures are part of a free exhibition at the Bargehouse, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1, running until September 18.
Tomorrow's meeting, on the 60th anniversary of the founding of the UN, has been overshadowed by the recent report into the Iraq oil-for-food scandal and infighting between member states.
Writing in the Times, the paper's foreign editor, Bronwen Maddox, says this year's summit is "bound to be a shambles" because it is trying to achieve too much. "The old bargain between developing countries and the developed world — particularly the US — is breaking down," she says.
Mr Annan was forced to postpone a traditional pre-summit news conference in order to continue last-minute talks between the member states trying to agree a final declaration.
Developing nations are reported to want better trade deals and more aid, while the US and Europe are said to favour "watered down" human rights and UN management reform proposals.
Many countries accuse the new hardline US ambassador, John Bolton, of trying to scupper the summit by demanding more than 700 changes to the document. He is known to be an influential critic of the organisation.
The Millennium Development Goals include targets to cut extreme poverty and child mortality in half and reverse the spread of HIV/Aids by 2015. It was hoped this target would be achieved after the G8 summit in July, when world leaders pledged to double aid to Africa by 2010.
But on August 1 Mr Bolton was appointed as the UN ambassador, and shortly afterwards the US produced a comprehensive set of revisions to the draft resolutions.
References to the Millennium Goals were removed in favour of more general wording on assistance programmes and targets, while pledges to resource the UN according to its needs were removed.
Subsequently, the US made concessions, including restoring a reference to the Millennium Development Goals, but major disagreements remain.
Other issues that have caused concern to the US and other member states are whether the international community should intervene to prevent genocide, whether the Millennium Goals will be acknowledged as definitive indicators of development, whether a more powerful Human Rights Council should replace the existing Human Rights Commission, whether the US will accept references to the Kyoto Protocol on climate change and how terrorism should be defined, and the responsibilities of governments to tackle it.
Today, the prime minister, Tony Blair, said he was optimistic about gaining international backing for tougher anti-terror measures in the wake of the July 7 London bombings.
Some issues central to UN reform, such as the mooted expansion of the 15-state security council, may well be sidelined.
Aid organisations have already criticised the "watered down" goals and said they were disappointed. Anti-poverty campaigners have also accused the UN member states of failing to defend their commitments on aid, debt and HIV/Aids under pressure from the US.
Development agency ActionAid said it had seen a leaked revised text on development to be debated at the summit.
"The biggest-ever summit of world leaders seems poised to hand out small change to the world's poor," Ramesh Singh, the chief executive of the agency, said.
African countries had hoped the summit would see them play a bigger role in the UN security council, but those hopes may now have been quashed following the internal arguments.
Writing for South Africa's Mail and Guardian, Jerome Cartillier said: "A failure to find consensus on proposed reforms of the United Nations security council has snuffed Africa's hopes to see its voice being heard louder within the international organisation."
