UNITED NATIONS – In a blow to Secretary-General Annan’s attempt to reform the United Nations, America announced yesterday it would not seek a seat on the recently formed Human Rights Council.

The council, approved last month by the General Assembly despite America’s opposition, was created to replace the largely discredited Human Rights Commission, which Mr. Annan has denounced because its membership included violators of human rights such as Sudan, Zimbabwe, and Cuba.

“We want to see what other countries present themselves” for membership, the American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, told reporters. “We’ll work to elect countries that share our values on human rights, but we’re not prepared at this point to offer our own candidacy.”

Cuba and Iran have already signed up for the new body, and are widely expected to be voted in. Like America, Israel yesterday announced it would not be a candidate for membership of the Human Rights Council.

The creation of the council was hailed by U.N. officials as an example of success in Mr. Annan’s drive to reform the world body, hoping it would become part of his legacy after two five-year terms at the helm.

Although America voted against its creation last month, most at Turtle Bay hoped it would join the council anyway, with many arguing that without the lone superpower – and the largest contributor to U.N. funds – the new body would lack credibility.

“The secretary-general is obviously disappointed,” Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, said yesterday. “We very much hope that the United States will continue to be an active player in the defense of universal human rights and support the work of the new Human Rights Council as it goes ahead,” he added. “And we also very much hope they will participate in the elections next year.”

America, Israel, Palau, and the Marshall Islands were the only holdouts at the March 15 General Assembly vote that created the new council. Hours before Washington’s decision not to run for a seat was announced yester day by a State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, Jerusalem also decided not to present its candidacy, Israeli deputy U.N. ambassador, Danny Carmon, told The New York Sun. He said that Jerusalem’s decision was made independently of Washington.

America and Israel are members of a regional bloc of democracies known as the Western European and Others Group, which includes Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Israel stood little chance of being elected in that group, which was assigned the smallest number of seats in the new human rights council, and even America was not assured automatic success.

Mr. Bolton said yesterday that one reason Washington decided not to seek a seat this year was that there were already eight candidates for the seven seats assigned to WEOG on the new body. In a “counterintuitive” manner, he added, America would now have more influence over shaping the council. “Those that want us to join eventually will pay particular attention to our views now,” he said.

But the decision to stay on the sidelines was largely seen as a vote of no confidence in the new body.

“This is a very sad day in the history of American diplomacy,” said Rep. Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, in a written statement. “In 1948, behind the visionary leadership of Eleanor Roosevelt, the United States led the effort to create a human rights mechanism at the United Nations.

“Today, the Bush administration did violence to Eleanor Roosevelt’s legacy by announcing to the world that it has turned its back on our 60-year effort to use the United Nations to promote and protect human rights around the world.”

The man who has almost single-handedly created the compromise that allowed the formation of the new council, General Assembly President Jan Eliasson of Sweden, remained optimistic yesterday. “I hope [America] will be a candidate as soon as possible,” he told the Sun yesterday.

So far, according to its Web site, 42 countries have presented their candidacy for a seat on the human rights council. The 47 members of the new body will be elected by the General Assembly on May 9.

Although advocates of the council have said the voting rules of the new council contain a mechanism to prevent the most flagrant violators from becoming members, several countries accused of human rights violations were quick to sign up. Among those who have presented their candidacies in the various regional groups are Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Pakistan, and Algeria.

“We will work closely with partners in the international community to encourage the council to address serious cases of human rights abuse in countries such as Iran, Cuba, Zimbabwe, Burma, Sudan and North Korea,” Mr. McCormack said.

He added that America would not withdraw financial support from the council. America provides 22% of the U.N. annual running budget.