The Bush Administration has announced it will not hand over some $34 million voted by Congress to the United Nations Population Fund, ostensibly because of its alleged support for coerced abortion in China.
State Department spokesman Mr Richard Boucher said: "Colin Powell decided that . . . US funds for family planning and reproductive health will be spent through the US agency for international development programmes and not through UNFPA."
The move, the latest chapter in a long-running, on-off battle between conservative US administrations and the UN agency, whose reproductive health care work ranges from contraception to abstinence education to gynaecological services in 142 countries, is likely to be seen in the US as a major victory for the religious right.
Democrats say the argument represents a phoney proxy battle, one conservatives could not win at home because of the constitutional protection of abortion provided by the landmark Roe v Wade case. Abroad it will be seen as further evidence of the US's lukewarm commitment to the UN.
The immediate justification for the suspension of aid is allegations that the UN fund is assisting the Chinese government's "one-child" policy, and specifically an alleged policy in parts of the country of forced abortions and sterilisations.
The State Department suspended funding in January pending an investigation but its mission to China is said in an unpublished report to have found no evidence of direct or indirect involvement in such abuses.
The UNPF sent its own independent international investigative team to China earlier this year which also cleared the agency. Irish diplomatic sources say they are convinced by the latter's thoroughness and insist that the agency continues to do valuable work - it remains one of the main UN recipients of Irish aid and Ireland served recently for three years on the agency's board.
Just last year, the Secretary of State, Mr Colin Powell, told the Senate that the UN agency does "invaluable work" and "provides critical population assistance to developing countries", and Mr Bush proposed a budget of $25 million for its work, subsequently raised by Congress to $34 million.
Two days after his arrival in the White House, Mr Bush announced, in a major reversal of Clinton policy, he would suspend funding to international family planning NGOs which supported abortion and he has been under pressure from, among others, conservatives among the senior Republican leadership in Congress to take action against the UN fund even though it does not pay for abortions.
