UNITED NATIONS. Sept 8: World leaders solemnly pledged yesterday to strengthen United Nations peacekeeping, but a public split over humanitarian intervention raised doubts about the effectiveness of future acUon, reports Reuters.

Chastened by the United Nation's recent poor record In preventing massacres, a special summit of the 15-member Security Council adopted guidelines intended to support UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's drive to give the world body more teeth.

But while the United States. Britain and Canada sought to extend the grounds for Intervention to avert disasters. Russian and Chinese leaders stressed their fierce opposition to interference in countries' internal affairs.

The five countries, permanent

members of the council, then met among themselves, and pledged to work towards revitalising peacekeeping operations, including adjusting the scale of payments in light of changed circumstances.

The United States, which owes the world body $1.7 billion, has argued for changes that It hopes would lower Its contribution.

On the second day of a UN Millennium Summit, gloom deepened about Middle East peace prospects after US President Bill Clinton failed to break the deadlock over Jerusalem in separate meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Clinton remained available to help mediate, but the

two sides had to make the 'hard decisions" for peace and time was running short..

Opening the showcase peacekeeping session. Annan told the Security Council it faced a crisis of credibility.

Too many vulnerable communities in too many regions of the world now hesitate to look to the United Nations to assist them in their hour of need." he said. After recent problems In providing forces for Sierra Leone. East Timor. Congo and the Eritrea-Ethiopia border, Annan called for new measures to overhaul underfunded and understaffed UN peacekeeping operations, with special emphasis on Africa.

Although neither Russian President Vladimir Putin nor Chinese President Jiang Zemin mentioned it by name. NATO's

Kosovo war haunted the debate about Intervention.

The US-led alliance launched its bombing campaign agaihst Yugoslavia last year without: seeking Security Council approval because It was clear that Moscow, the Serbs' historic ally, would have used its veto to block any action.

Putin said that under no circumstances could the new century "be a cause for reconsidering the norms of behaviour tested .by time." Jiang also voiced objections to the idea of bypassing the Council in any way.

The council adopted a resolution that would move toward overhauling peacekeeping operations in order to provide better trained troops that would respond faster to crises.