US can't fix it all alone - Barack Obama

US President Barack Obama told world leaders yesterday to stop blaming America and join him in confronting challenges like Iran and North Korea's nuclear programmes and the war in Afghanistan.

In his first speech to the assembly since taking office in January, Mr Obama pledged US global engagement but said the US could not shoulder the responsibility alone.

"Those who used to chastise America for acting alone in the world cannot now stand by and wait for America to solve the world's problems alone," Mr Obama said. Leaders of Libya and Brazil, speaking at the annual UN General Assembly gathering, both questioned the world's political and economic balance, reflecting deep unease exacerbated by the global economic crisis.

The US leader, enjoying a glo-bal spotlight, urged international leaders to move beyond "an almost reflexive anti-Americanism, which too often has served as an excuse for collective inaction."

Meanwhile Muammar Gaddafi, in his first address to the UN in 40 years as Libya's autocratic ruler, yesterday accused major powers on the Security Council of betraying the principles of the UN charter. "The preamble (of the charter) says all nations are equal whether they are small or big," Colonel Gaddafi said in a long, rambling speech during which he chastised his audience for falling asleep.

After reading from a copy of the UN charter, Col Gaddafi condemned the veto power held by five permanent members of the council, at one point referring to it as the "terror council." Speaking through an interpreter, he said: "The veto is against the charter, we do not accept it and we do not acknowledge it."

Clad in a copper-colored robe with an emblem of Africa pinned over his chest, the Libyan leader dropped his paperback copy of the charter on the podium several times before tossing it over his shoulder.

Col Gaddafi, who touched on subjects ranging from the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, the US invasion of Grenada and free medicine for the world's children, spoke for one hour and 35 minutes.

Mr Obama, who will host a Group of 20 nations summit in Pittsburgh this week, also pledged to work with allies to strengthen financial regulation to "put an end to the greed, excess and abuse that led us into disaster."

Mr Obama was among the first major speakers at the gathering, which brings more than 100 heads of state and government together to air issues ranging from nuclear proliferation and international terrorism to climate change and global poverty.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, opening the meeting, urged delegates to put their differences behind them.

"If ever there were a time to act in a spirit of renewed multilateralism - a moment to create a United Nations of genuine collective action - it is now," he said.

Mr Obama has brought a new tone in US foreign policy, stressing cooperation and consultation over the unilateralism of his predecessor, George W. Bush.

But while the applause he received at the United Nations was testament to Mr Obama's global popularity, the new approach has delivered few concrete foreign policy achievements.