UNITED NATIONS — Kofi Annan, who spent the last years of his decade-long tenure as U.N. secretary-general clashing with members of the Bush administration, says he hopes a widely held perception that his successor, Secretary-General Ban, is “too close” to America is nothing but a “passing phase.”

Mr. Annan, who became secretary-general in 1997 with strong backing from the Clinton administration but ran afoul of Washington when he criticized the war in Iraq as “illegal,” was in New York City yesterday to receive an international justice award from the MacArthur Foundation. In a wide-ranging discussion with U.N. reporters, he opined on world affairs in a style that fans and detractors alike once likened to that of a “secular pope.”

“Almost every secretary-general at one point or the other is perceived as close to the Americans, and at another point fighting the Americans,” he said. “I hope this perception that Secretary-General Ban is too close to the United States is a passing phase.”

Mr. Annan, who is now based in Geneva, said he is following the “revealing” American presidential campaign closely, adding that he has “no horse” in the race. “I used to ask myself the question, ‘Is society ready for a woman, a black man?'” he said. “It seems to me that there have been major shifts in the American society that I missed even though I have been here for a long time and I thought that I understood” America. “This election has been an eye-opener for me, and I think for many people around the world.”

Mr. Ban’s critics say his closeness to America is harmful for the world body. “The U.N. flag is no more a protection, but rather a target because of its failure to preserve impartiality in different conflicts in the world,” a former aide to Mr. Annan, Lakhdar Brahimi, whom Mr. Ban appointed to investigate a bombing at the U.N. headquarters in Algiers, told Algerian reporters this week.

While Mr. Ban has often said he would rather achieve results in areas where the United Nations can be effective than make public his views on world situations, Mr. Annan spoke of “a bully pulpit that I believe as secretary-general I should use.” In reality, Mr. Annan said, “There are very few things that the secretary-general can do,” so what is left is to “challenge the member states” and “inspire” them.

In his recent memoir, “Surrender Is Not an Option,” a former American ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, had strong criticism for Mr. Annan’s “secular pope” stance. He supported Mr. Ban, Mr. Bolton wrote, because “of all the candidates to succeed Annan, I thought he was the least likely to wake up at one point during his five-year term concluding he was God’s gift to humanity.”