Plan for new UN rights council put off to 2006

UNITED NATIONS, Thursday (Reuters) The United Nations shelved efforts to reshape the main U.N. human rights agency by the end of the year in a fresh sign that U.N. reforms being pushed by wealthy nations were faltering.

Tense talks aimed at ensuring a package of proposed management reforms is reflected in the 2006 U.N. budget also remained at an impasse just days before a Dec. 31 deadline for the spending plan to be in place, diplomats said.

A failure to complete the budget on time would be "very disruptive" to ongoing U.N. activities, Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned the 191 nations making up the world body. "We may have to take some drastic measures," he told an end-of-the-year news conference.

"I think the member states realize they don't have much time and they may have to come up with some creative ways of ending their work."Rich countries as well as Annan are pushing hard for management reforms and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called for "a revolution of reform" following months of allegations of U.N. corruption and mismanagement.