UN's dream leader heads for disaster: Boutros Boutros-Ghali is antagonising his closest colleagues and risks turning the Security Council against him, writes Leonard Doyle in New York

THE OLD SAW about the United Nations is that its leader is neither a secretary nor a general, but a political tightrope-walker whose power derives from his ability to work with the Security Council, especially its five permanent members.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, formerly Egypt's deputy prime minister, seemed like a headhunter's dream come true when he was chosen by 11 of the council's 15 members last November as the ideal man to lead the UN after the Gulf war. As an Arab, Christian politician, married to a Jew and hailing from the African continent, Mr Boutros-Ghali seemed tailor-made to turn the UN into a meaningful forum.

His election was an upset for Britain and the US, for whom the 69-year-old patrician who played an important role in the Camp David accords, was neither young enough, nor sufficiently reform- minded, to do much in five years in office. In the spirit of post-Cold War consensus, neither country felt like imposing a veto.

But to judge by the downcast faces of ambassadors emerging from Security Council meetings on Yugoslavia last week, during which Mr Boutros-Ghali complained that the UN was too involved in a 'war of the rich' and not doing enough to help Somalia, many now believe Mr Boutros- Ghali was a disastrous choice.

On Friday he clashed with the Belgian representative who helped to secure his election, and exchanged strong words in a tete- a-tete with Britain's Sir David Hannay about UN peace-keeping in Yugoslavia. It was not the first time that a secretary-general had dug his heels in against the policies fostered by big UN powers - in this case Britain and the EC - but the public manner in which it was being done took diplomats aback. It prompted whispering about the nightmare scenario of having a council that was at odds with the Secretary-General.

Unlike his predecessor, Javier Perez de Cuellar, a paragon of old-fashioned, gentlemanly diplomacy, Mr Boutros-Ghali annoys ambassadors (who are minister plenipotentiary in rank) by going over their heads and speaking directly to their foreign ministers. For many ambassadors, the highlight of their year at the UN is the cable they send to their foreign ministry after presenting their credentials or meeting the Secretary-General for half an hour to discuss an issue of national importance. Mr Boutros-Ghali has all but done away with this ritual and rarely sees ambassadors. When he does, he infuriates them, as with an Asian ambassador whose meeting lasted a mere minute and a half.

More dangerous for Mr Boutros-Ghali is his snubbing of the Security Council by avoiding many of its meetings. He says he has better things to do than be bored by endless discussions going nowhere. His empty-chair policy backfired last week, when the Council called on the UN to send more peace-keepers to Bosnia to collect and supervise heavy weapons. Mr Boutros-Ghali took umbrage at not having being consulted, precipitating a week-long row, the main outcome of which was that he now participates in Council meetings.

Sir David, who can be aggressive when presented with something obstructing his government's objectives, was reticent on the dispute with Mr Boutros- Ghali. He urged Mr Boutros- Ghali's senior advisers to assure the Secretary-General that Britain was not trying to undermine his authority by manoeuvring the Council to call for more peace- keepers to be sent to Yugoslavia.

But others on the Council were less confident about the prospects for patching things up, and some of Mr Boutros-Ghali's senior staff, who find him autocratic and ill-tempered, now talk of throwing in the towel if things do not improve. Giandomenico Picco, a senior UN figure noted for his role in negotiating the release of the Western hostages in Lebanon, jumped ship and took a well-paid job in the private sector after Mr Boutros-Ghali asked him to look after Afghanistan, the UN equivalent of being sent to Siberia.

(Photograph omitted)