UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan canceled on Thursday an upcoming trip to China, South Korea, Japan and Vietnam because of an impasse on the UN budget and other issues, his office announced.

UN spokeswoman Marie Okabe said Annan had informed the governments of all four countries "of his intention of postponing the upcoming Asian visit because of pressing matters, in particular the discussions over the UN budget and other urgent political issues."

The trip, which was to begin in Beijing on Monday, is expected to be rescheduled for next year, she said.

Faced with opposition from developing nations, US Ambassador John Bolton said last week Washington would oppose adopting the two-year UN budget until new reform proposals were included.

Instead of the usual US$3.89 billion budget, Bolton said the 191-member General Assembly should approve a three- or four-month interim budget.

Many of the proposed reforms supported by the United States, Japan and European nations, the main contributors to the budget, are in trouble -- including a new human rights council that would deny membership to rights abusers and overhaul of UN management.

Bolton has argued that adopting the budget would send a "business as usual" signal. The European Union disagrees, and Japan, which shares Washington's concern, has not backed Bolton's proposal for an interim budget.

The UN controller, Warren Sach, told a news conference on Tuesday a delay in approving the budget at the end of the year would cause a financial crisis in the organization.

He said an interim budget would leave the world body with a deficit of US$320 million as no country could pay dues before a budget was in place. Instead, the world body would probably have to delay paying salaries, borrow from a separate peacekeeping budget and freeze recruitment, travel and equipment purchases.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies December 2, 2005)