Exhausted United Nations diplomats were on Sunday struggling ahead of Wednesday's summit of world leaders to avoid the collapse of an ambitious reform package spanning human rights, development aid and the world body's own internal management.

European ambassadors, who have broadly endorsed the wide-ranging package of reforms proposed by Kofi Annan, the embattled UN secretary-general, were trying to act as a bridge between the US, on the one hand, and a vocal group of middle-income developing countries, such as Egypt and Pakistan, on the other.