The United Nations has been having a difficult time of it recently. There have been serious questions about the world body's handling of the oil-for-food program in Iraq. There have been accusations that UN peacekeeping troops sexually abused girls in the Congo. And critics have been getting more adamant about the UN's inability to censure countries for human rights abuses -- partially because many of the worst offenders sit on the body's own Commission on Human Rights.

On Sunday, however, Secretary General Kofi Annan -- himself imperilled by scandal and criticism -- presented proposals for sweeping changes to the 191-member body. His wish list  includes measures ranging from expanding the Security Council to agreeing on a common definition of terrorism and will, he hopes, be acted upon during the UN summit scheduled for September. On Monday, German papers consider the changes and examine whether or not they will be enough for the UN to weather the current storm.

The Financial Times Deutschland trumps all German dailies on Monday by printing a piece (originally contributed to the paper's London-based parent Financial Times) pleading for reform by Annan himself. To get the reform ball rolling, Annan begins with what could be interpreted as a minor scolding. "I wanted to remind the governments of the world ... that they are in the UN to represent not themselves but their peoples, who expect them to work for the aims set out in the organization's charter." The rest of the article provides the justifications behind some of the items on his grocery list of suggested reforms.

* On human rights: "The UN's member states can now agree ... to make the international machinery for defending human rights more effective and credible."

* On reducing world poverty: "There is no longer any excuse for leaving well over a billion of our fellow human beings in abject misery. All that is needed is some clear decisions by the governments of both rich and poor countries."

* On global security: "Decisions can, and should, be taken to strengthen our common defence and action against terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, organized crime, sudden world epidemics, climate change, recurrent state collapse, civil war and genocide."

* On the Security Council: While not committing himself to a specific model for Security Council reform, Annan writes, "the Security Council, for its part, needs to be more broadly representative but also more able and willing to take action when action is needed."

The center-left daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung comments that any reforms will be dependent on the United States, especially considering the widespread belief in Washington that the UN is dysfunctional. There is, as the paper notes, a movement among neo-conservatives in the US to replace the UN with a "League of Democracies." That, however, would mean that there would no longer be a world forum in which the world could address problem states, the paper argues. It also mentions, however, that the recent string of major scandals at the UN will make it difficult for Annan to push through his reform agenda. And, "without Washington's assistance, Annan is sure to fail. In that case, though, the US would be among the many losers because it would then have to shoulder its global security tasks all by itself."

The center-right Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung is even more skeptical. It starts with the familiar rundown of the problems facing the body, including corruption, the Congo sexual abuse case and the fact that the world community cannot seem to be able to come up with a response to human rights abuses (and mass slaughter) by the Sudanese government in Darfur. But then the paper gets to the core of the problem: when addressing a number of issues "the interests of the 191 member countries quickly diverge." Even worse, "the (UN) is not a world government, nor is it even a surrogate government. Rather, it is a collection of sovereign nations who use it for their own purposes." The paper gives an example to illustrate this tendency: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's expression of support over the weekend for a permanent Security Council seat for Japan. Given that the US has remained silent on Germany's aspirations for a Council seat, the paper sees Rice's comments as a clear sign that the US is using the UN to reward Japan for its participation in the "coalition of the willing" in Iraq. And "no UN reform will change such realpolitik calculus, especially not in America."