President GeorgeW. Bush's announcement of a "core group" - comprising the US, Australia, India and Japan - to co-ordinate aid to tsunami-stricken countries around the Indian Ocean was widely seen both inside and outside the US as a slap in the face for the United Nations.

The clear implication of the December 29 statement, and that drawn by the UN's vociferous critics in the US, already scenting blood in the oil-for-food scandal, was that the UN's creaking if not corrupt bureaucracy was not up to the job.