US ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, said he was waiting for UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to disavow comments by his deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, who criticized what he feels is a widespread anti-UN stance in much of the United States. Bolton said Brown made "a very, very grave mistake" by criticizing the Bush administration's failure to stop unwarranted UN bashing in America.

Bolton said on Wednesday that he told Annan in a phone call: "I've known you since 1989 and I'm telling you this is the worst mistake by a senior UN official that I have seen in that entire time." But UN spokesman Stephanie Dujarric said that Annan stood by Brown's remarks.

Brown said in his speech on Tuesday at the Center for American Progress and The Century Foundation that "much of the public discourse [about the UN] that reaches the US heartland has been largely abandoned to its loudest detractors such as Rush Limbaugh and Fox News."

Brown, a Briton, believes that the US's antipathy toward the UN will make it more difficult to for the world body to respond to global challenges. "I hope that you will take it in the spirit in which it is meant: as a sincere and constructive critique of US policy towards the UN by a friend and admirer," Brown said before he started his speech.

But Bolton was outraged by what he saw as a "condescending, patronizing tone about the American people." He said that such action by a highly ranking UN official would undermine the UN's reform agenda. The United States and the United Nations have had a strenuous relationship for years that has been made worse since the war in Iraq. The unilateral approach frequently taken by the Bush adminstration on issues like human rights, global warming and the international criminal court has only exacerbated the situation.

The row between a high ranking UN official and the US amabassador to the UN comes at a sensitive time. Washington has successfully put a cap on the UN budget to spur reform, but funds  could run out in June. United States, which contributes over 20 percent of the total UN budget, could now threaten not to pay. Washington in the past has withheld payment to the UN over disagreement with how funds were being used.