A United Nation's official claims the U.S. owes that body $1.7 billion -- $1 billion for peacekeeping and the rest for general operations. Moreover, the U.N. has threatened to take away the U.S. vote in the General Assembly if we don't pay at least $250 million by the end of this year.

But a number of analysts claim the U.S. has a strong case in its favor.

• The U.S. already pays for 25 percent of the U.N. budget -- more by far than any other nation.

• The vast majority of General Assembly members routinely vote against the U.S. position -- even as the U.S. pours millions of dollars into aid for those same countries.

• A 1996 General Accounting Office report found that peacekeeping in Rwanda, Somalia, Haiti and the former Yugoslavia cost U.S. taxpayers $6.6 billion -- six times what the U.N. says the U.S. owes for peacekeeping.

• Despite Congress's repeated calls for U.N. reform, it still remains bureaucratic and inefficient, critics charge.

Source: Editorial, "More Whining from the U.N.," Investor's Business Daily, March 25, 1999.