United Nations ? U.S. Ambassador John Bolton denied that the United States jumped into the debate too late on a reform document world leaders are expected to adopt next month, saying Tuesday the U.S. has been proposing changes for months.

The United States has come under attack from a number of countries for proposing hundreds of amendments to the document just weeks before 175 world leaders arrive for a summit at U.N. headquarters on Sept. 14.

Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants the leaders to adopt measures to combat world poverty and reform the United Nations.

“The notion that … we have dumped a whole bunch of new changes out is simply not correct,” Bolton said.

To demonstrate what the U.S. has been doing, Bolton produced four separate drafts of the final document on which the United States had made lengthy revisions, the first on June 25. All four drafts were given to General Assembly President Jean Ping, who has been overseeing the drafting of the document, he said.

Bolton said Ping collected suggestions from many countries and came up with drafts which did not include what the U.S. wanted – so after the latest 39-page text was circulated on Aug. 5, the United States decided to send its proposed amendments to all 191 U.N. member states.

Diplomats said the U.S. proposals helped spark a new phase of nation-to-nation negotiations which started Monday and are being led by ambassadors from 32 countries.

Ping has urged the negotiators to focus on seven contentious issues: terrorism; a new Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission; the Peacebuilding Commission; protecting civilians against genocide; overhauling U.N. management; and actions to fight poverty and promote development.

On Monday, the 32-member “core group” focused on terrorism and the Peacebuilding Commission to help countries emerging from conflict, and smaller negotiating teams were formed to tackle each issue.

On Tuesday, they turned to protecting civilians against genocide and human rights, and a subcommittee help preliminary discussions on development.

“There are issues which move faster than others,” Ping said afterward. “We have, as we see it in the past, some difficulties in certain points.”