January 1, 2005 - 12:15 AM

Powell denies U.S.-UN rivalry in tsunami response

By Irwin Arieff

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has rejected suggestions
that Washington has been trying to edge out the United Nations as leader of the international
relief effort for the Indian Ocean tsunami.

Powell, during a visit to U.N. headquarters for talks with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, also
denied that President George W. Bush had just increased U.S. disaster aid to $350 million (180
million pounds) from $35 million because he had been stung by criticism that wealthy nations
were stingy.

"This ten-fold increase is indicative of American generosity but it also is indicative of the need,"
Powell told reporters when asked if the increase announced by Bush on Friday had been the
result of a "bidding war."

The announcement had been timed around completion of the necessary assessments and "not
just that each day everybody was trying to play, 'Can you top this,'" Powell said. "The need is
great, not just for immediate relief but for long-term."

The United Nations said the death toll from Sunday's colossal sea surge may be approaching
150,000 as the emergency relief operation struggled against debris-clogged harbours, power
outages, washed-away roads and shattered towns from Indonesia to Somalia.

The United States initially had committed $15 million, then raised its contribution to $35 million
after U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland criticized rich nations such as the United
States as "stingy" for cutting back on general aid funding even as the world economy was
growing.

'ASSETS, EXPERIENCE AND CAPABILITY'

Bush on Wednesday dismissed suggestions that America was stingy as "misguided and
ill-informed" and set off alarm bells in the relief community by announcing he had assembled a
core group of Australia, India, Japan and the United States to coordinate the relief effort.

The move prompted speculation that Bush hoped to supplant the United Nations, which has
taken the lead in coordinating natural disaster relief for the past five decades.

But Powell said the group had been formed only because Washington saw a need for a
coordination mechanism consisting of countries in the region "with assets, experience and
capability that could be brought to bear right away."

The group "might expand slightly but in due course we hope the core group will work itself out
of business because we will have brought all of the international organizations into play under the
overall supervision and leadership of the United Nations," Powell said.

Egeland said the latest U.S. contribution brought total donations from around the world to more
than $1.1 billion including cash and in-kind contributions.

Washington's relations with the world body have been tense since the March 2003 invasion of
Iraq, which Annan opposed and the Security Council refused to authorize.

But Powell, who has announced plans to leave the U.S. administration in early 2005, and
Annan praised each other for their cooperation since the tsunami crisis and before.

"Over the course of the last six days we have worked very closely with the secretary-general
and his staff," Powell told reporters after his talks with Annan.