Obama debut, Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad a potent U.N. brew

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the 63rd United Nations General Assembly at the U.N. headquarters in New York September 23, 2008.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. debut of President Barack Obama and appearances by the Libyan leader and Iranian president promise drama this month at the General Assembly, the annual global summit more often marked by words than action.

Unlike his predecessor, George W. Bush, Obama has vowed to work closely with the United Nations and plans to spend all or part of three days in New York, making two speeches and chairing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

There has been widespread speculation he could announce a new Middle East peace initiative and host a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, both of them due to come to New York.

The parties continue to argue over the preconditions for such a meeting -- especially whether Israel will halt construction of Jewish settlements. But a senior Western diplomat said there were hopes of "some clear step forward in the Middle East peace process" at the assembly.

Obama will also address a climate change conference, signaling his administration's concern over the issue, and become the first U.S. president to chair a Security Council meeting. Its theme will be nuclear non-proliferation.

But Middle East peace talks may have to compete with harsh rhetoric from Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- and with the clamor of protesters who say those two should not be in New York at all.

Gaddafi and Ahmadinejad have both landed speaking slots on the key opening day -- Wednesday, September 23 -- of the assembly debate, when Obama, the presidents of France, Russia and China, and Britain's prime minister will also speak.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Chinese President Hu Jintao will be addressing the assembly for the first time. They sent lower-level officials in past years, but this year they and others are visiting New York en route to the September 24-25 G20 summit in Pittsburgh.

Ahmadinejad and Gaddafi are controversial at any time, but especially so at present: the Iranian because of the disputed election that returned him to power in June, and the Libyan because of a new twist in the Lockerbie bombing saga.

Libyan official Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, jailed in Scotland for his role in the 1988 explosion of an airliner over the town of Lockerbie that killed 270 people, many of them Americans, was sent home last month because of terminal cancer.

Gaddafi caused anger in the United States and elsewhere by welcoming Megrahi in Tripoli and Washington's U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, warned him on Wednesday to beware of aggravating raw U.S. emotions with his conduct in New York.

LODGING DISPUTE

Some in the United States have called on the State Department to deny visas to the two leaders. But Washington has given no sign it will take action that would put it in breach of a 1947 host-country treaty with the United Nations.

Neither man looks likely at present to stand down, although diplomats say it cannot be ruled out that the mercurial Gaddafi might pull out at the last minute.

Ahmadinejad, who has come every year since his first election in 2005 and appeared to relish the publicity, this year needs the appearance of legitimacy a U.N. podium can give. An aide said on Tuesday he would make what would be his first trip to the West since his disputed re-election.

Gaddafi, by contrast, has never come to the United Nations in his 40-year rule. But this year, he is chairman of the African Union, the incoming General Assembly president is a Libyan and Libya has a Security Council seat.

Already, a dispute has erupted over where Gaddafi will stay, with the U.S. government denying permission for him to pitch his signature tent at a Libyan property in a New Jersey town near New York, after local protests.

"Apparently Gaddafi is looking for a ground-floor suite at a hotel in New York because he doesn't like elevators," one Western diplomat said.

There is a further problem of "choreography," as U.S. protocol officials seek to manage contacts between him and Obama that could result in unwelcome television footage or photographs. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, under fire at home over the Megrahi affair, faces a similar problem.

While Ahmadinejad should be fairly easy for the U.S. president to avoid, Gaddafi speaks directly after Obama in the General Assembly and is bound to attend the Security Council meeting Obama will chair on September 24.

Washington has full diplomatic relations with Tripoli and it is customary for representatives of Security Council countries to greet each other, if only with a formal handshake.

The problem will be compounded if Gaddafi follows the precedent of many of his previous speeches and lashes out at Israel. Ahmadinejad, for his part, is virtually certain to do so. His speech last year railing against "Zionist murderers" was attacked by Western leaders as anti-Semitic and offensive.

(Editing by Stacey Joyce)