U.N. Chief Bemoans 'Really Difficult' Year and Looks Toward '06 
By Warren Hoge
December 22, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/international/22nations.html

UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 21 - Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, on Wednesday devoted a news conference to expressions of concern over events of a past year he described as really difficult and said he was raring to go on the coming year, his last in office.
But he betrayed an underlying disquiet, flashing unaccustomed public irritation at questions on the scandal concerning the Iraqi oil-for-food program and assailing the press for its coverage of the subject.
Looking ahead, he said he faced the challenge of gaining approval in the General Assembly for fundamental changes in the United Nations, and he cited as priorities solving conflicts in places like Congo and the Darfur region of Sudan, combating terror and unconventional weapons and stabilizing the Middle East.
Asked his greatest regret, he said: I wish we had done everything we could to avoid a war in Iraq that has brought such division within this organization and the international community. That is the one thing that still haunts me.
He said he hoped to see an impartial Human Rights Council created to replace the Human Rights Commission by spring, when the commission is to meet in Geneva. He conceded that despite the importance of the issue to the United Nations, movement had been too slow.
The commission has been discredited because it admits countries that are notorious rights violators. Talks on a replacement have run into objections from some developing nations and were suspended Tuesday. They are set to resume Jan. 11.
In the $64 billion oil-for-food program, five long reports by Paul A. Volcker, the former Federal Reserve chairman, exposed mismanagement and corruption in its management by the United Nations, and Mr. Annan said he felt the organization had drawn the right lessons from the reports and was taking the necessary corrective steps.
But then he added, I hope you ladies and gentlemen of the press would also do some reflection on your own as to how you have covered that event, how you allowed deliberate leaks and others to lead you in one direction, and when, in the end, the actual story came, when the investigations were completed, with all the documentation and the countries, you missed a story.
Mr. Annan later refused to respond to a question by James Bone of The Times of London after Mr. Bone said, Some of your own stories, your own version of events, don't really make sense. Interrupting, Mr. Annan accused Mr. Bone of being cheeky and said he was behaving like an overgrown schoolboy.
Mr. Annan said stalled talks in a General Assembly committee on the biennial budget, which must be approved by the end of the year, were threatening the United Nations with a financial crisis. He said that only 4 of the 250 paragraphs of the budget document had been agreed upon. The United States has hinted it may block agreement and called for a three- or four-month interim budget to avoid locking into a two-year budget that would not include the costs of promised changes. American allies like Japan and the European Union, which support the change initiative, have not endorsed that plan but say they are seeking other ways to achieve the goal without disrupting the budget process.
Mr. Annan said, I have appealed to the member states to maintain the pressure on reform but, at the same time, approve a budget that will allow us to continue our ongoing activities while we press ahead with reform.