UNITED NATIONS, Sept 7 (AFP) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday played down criticism of the United Nations at last week's Republican national convention and said the Bush administration works closely with the world body.
Vice President Dick Cheney, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and other Republicans ridiculed letting the United Nations have a say in US policy, during a series of attacks on Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry.
"This is electioneering. During an election period, all sorts of statements get made," Annan told reporters on arrival at UN headquarters in New York.
"Every country, including this administration, is working very seriously with the UN," he said.
The UN chief refused to get drawn into a discussion of how the word body's relationship with Washington might change if George W. Bush does not win re-election in November.
"We are working well with this administration and we did work well with the previous administration -- and I'm confident we'll work well with the next one," he said.
Annan was an outspoken critic of Bush's "unilateral" policy after the United States launched last year's war on Iraq without international backing from the UN Security Council.
"In certain situations, the collective interest is the national interest," he said on Tuesday.
"The European Union is a great example. Yes, some have given away a bit of their sovereignty, but they are all better off," he said. "On the question of multilateralism, the world is on our side."
During the Republican convention, speakers painted Kerry as a weak leader who would sacrifice American autonomy to the United Nations, where leading Security Council nations like France did not support the Iraq war.
"Senator Kerry denounces American action when other countries don't approve, as if the whole object of our foreign policy were to please a few persistent critics," Cheney said in his address to the convention.
"If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope for democracy, then you are a Republican," Schwarzenegger said.