European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was quoted by Reuters as telling the United States on Friday it could not solve world problems alone, urging it to honour foreign aid pledges and prove it was committed to the United Nations. The head of the European Union's executive body said there were signs the transatlantic rift over the U.S.-led Iraq war was healing but called on both sides to work harder to mend ties. "America will not be more successful in achieving its objectives by taking the unilateral path. Europeans need to spend a bit more time matching their words to deeds," he told the New York-based think-tank Council on Foreign Relations, according to Reuters. As Portugal's ex-prime minister, the centre-right Barroso supported the United States over the Iraq war, which President George W. Bush launched in 2003 without U.N. backing and in the face of opposition from France and others. But Barroso denied the episode had shown the shortcomings of the United Nations, and urged Washington to lead efforts by U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to revamp the world body to help it better tackle poverty, conflict and human rights abuses. --More 0035 U.S. can't solve world problems alone - EU chief New York "Both the EU and the U.S. should seize this opportunity and accept the role of front-runners on U.N. reform," he said in the speech, which made no reference to the controversy around Bush's choice of John Bolton, a fierce critic of the United Nations, as Washington's ambassador to the organisation. Barroso said the decision by the second Bush administration earlier this year to support European talks with Iran to win assurances over its nuclear programme was a sign that it was willing to cooperate with others on solving world problems. But he urged Washington to do more to ensure it fulfilled international pledges to boost foreign aid, noting the EU was already more than halfway towards a target of spending 0.7 percent of gross national income on aid by 2015. "I truly hope the U.S. will join us in this effort, because few can doubt that this would have a dramatic impact on the ground," he said. According to statistics by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) think-tank, the United States spent 0.16 percent of its national income on overseas development assistance last year. --SP 2146 Local Time 1846 GMT
