United Nations ? The outcome of this week’s U.N. summit to tackle poverty and overhaul the United Nations administration was thrown into question Monday because of serious disagreements over the document that world leaders are supposed to adopt.

After a weekend of lengthy talks by a negotiating group of about 15 countries, several ambassadors said there definitely would be a document – but it would be far less sweeping and ambitious than the blueprint called for by Secretary-General Kofi Annan last March.

With some leaders already in New York for Wednesday’s opening of the three-day summit, ambassadors were still wrestling with the text of the latest 39-page document on revamping the United Nations to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

Mark Malloch Brown, the secretary-general’s chief of staff, sought to put an optimistic cast on the situation, saying negotiations seemed more favorable than a few days ago because “deadlines are starting to loosen minds and positions.”

“There’s a threshold where we always knew we wouldn’t get the full loaf,” he added. “We’ve got to start counting slices. Half or more will do at this stage.”

The seven issues facing negotiators were terrorism; a stronger Human Rights Council to replace the discredited Human Rights Commission; a new Peacebuilding Commission to help nations emerging from conflict; new responsibility for governments to protect civilians from genocide and war crimes; disarmament and nuclear weapons proliferation; overhauling U.N. management; and the promotion of economic development.

Annan also had urged the 191 U.N. member states to agree on a plan to expand the powerful U.N. Security Council, but the negotiations became so contentious the idea was shelved last month.

In the latest talks, a 32-nation “core” group broke into even smaller groups to try to come up with language that all member states could agree on.

When negotiations stalled Monday morning, some countries called for issues where there were still disagreements to be eliminated from the document.

Faced with the prospect of human rights, peacebuilding and other key proposals being totally dropped if they weren’t agreed, Britain and other EU countries put together watered-down language that might get support from all member states.

Those proposals were added to a revised 44-page text, which already had over 150 disputed passages.

The “core” group was going over the draft line-by-line late Monday, and the General Assembly scheduled a meeting this morning to take stock of the negotiations.