Leaders Promise To Revitalize The U.N. Declaration Pledges Cooperation; Calls For Deadbeats To Pay Up

World leaders wrapped up their largest gathering in history Tuesday, promising - with few specifics - to revive the United Nations and restore its financial health.

Many leaders praised the United Nations on its 50th birthday. But one president who has seen firsthand the vast gulf between U.N. resolutions and resolve sounded a warning.

“Let us listen to what they are saying, but let us ask them what they are doing,” Bosnian President Alija Izetbegovic said of his counterparts. “As soon as they return home, unfortunately, they will continue their course. It is up to us to stop them.”

During three days of speechmaking, national leaders took the opportunity to expound on virtually every issue facing humanity: poverty and hunger, the environment, population, terrorism, crime, the Bosnian war, Middle East peace and nuclear arms.

In a joint declaration approved unanimously Tuesday night at the close of the 50th-anniversary ceremonies, they focused on the United Nations itself. More than 180 kings, princes, presidents and premiers pledged to revitalize the organization and “create new opportunities for peace, development, democracy and cooperation.”

The statement also called on the United States and other countries to pay their bills. The United States, the biggest deadbeat in the 185-member organization, accounts for $1.3 billion of the $3 billion owed.

President Clinton, who addressed the opening session Sunday, promised to work with the Republican-controlled Congress to pay the U.S. debt. But he insisted the United Nations slash spending, reduce its bureaucracy and streamline overlapping agencies.

The three-day gathering was as colorful, as diverse and at times as unruly as humanity itself. Traffic in one of the world’s most densely populated areas ground to a halt as police convoys sped world leaders to and from meetings around New York.

Protesters hounded controversial figures such as Cuban President Fidel Castro and Chinese President Jiang Zemin. On Tuesday, 800 Taiwanese marched through Manhattan streets denouncing the Beijing government’s rights record.