UNITED NATIONS – The Bush administration for the first time expressed full support for beleaguered Secretary-General Annan yesterday, as internal and external pressures on the United Nations continue to mount.

“We are not suggesting the resignation or pushing the resignation of the secretary-general,” the outgoing American U.N. envoy, Ambassador John Danforth, told reporters. “We are expressing confidence in the secretary-general and in his continuing in office.”

A similar sentiment was expressed by one of America’s staunchest allies, who until now equivocated. Asked if he supports Mr. Annan’s resignation, Australia’s foreign minister, Alexander Downer, told Canberra reporters yesterday, “I don’t think so, no. I think we’ll just wait and see what the inquiry says.”

The statements came a day after a meeting between Mr. Annan and representatives of the staff union at Turtle Bay, described by participants as “tense.”

Also yesterday, a conservative think tank, the Center for Individual Freedom Foundation, published a national poll indicating that most voters in last month’s election believe the U.N. is “anti-American.”

Additionally, on the first annual U.N. “Anti-Corruption Day” yesterday, The New York Sun obtained a letter written by a leading Washington based group promoting the rights of whistle-blowers, which accuses Mr.Annan’s management team of merely paying “lip service” to anti-corruption principles while claiming to promote them around the world.

In the December 2 letter to Mr. Annan, Tom Devine and Melanie Beth Oliviero of the Government Accountability Project, accuse the U.N. management of “retaliatory actions,” including “passive termination” of contracts of employees who publicly expose wrongdoing in the world body.

Along with a host of new leaks from the various oil-for-food investigations, all this resulted in weeks of mounting calls for Mr. Annan’s resignation, starting with newspaper editorials and culminating with Senator Coleman’s December 1 Wall Street Journal op-ed piece.

During that time President Bush refused to defend Mr. Annan explicitly,even when asked point-blank about the calls for his resignation. Neither did other top administration officials including – until yesterday – Mr. Danforth.

“Several of my colleagues, not to mention comments in the media, but several of my colleagues have said to me that what it sounds as if I’m saying is that we really don’t support the secretary-general,” Mr. Danforth said.”So I have felt that it’s important to clarify it, and I know that others in the administration have as well.”

Mr. Danforth denied lobbying the administration to support Mr. Annan publicly. “I’m a mere ambassador, you know, conveying a message,” he said. Mr. Annan’s spokesman, Fred Eckhard, said that the U.N. has not asked for Washington’s support either.Yesterday’s announcement “took us by surprise” he told the Sun.

Mr. Danforth urged Mr. Annan to cooperate fully with congressional investigations into the oil-for-food scandal. “Congress certainly has every right to be engaged in this and there should be cooperation, and all the information that should be turned over, must be turned over,” he said.

Mr. Danforth was originally scheduled to make the announcement yesterday morning, but it was delayed until later in the afternoon, raising speculations that the administration is still torn about supporting Mr. Annan. Mr. Danforth dismissed those doubts, saying, “Sometimes I have a hard time getting my act together.”

It might have been an unpopular political move. The Washington-based Center for Individual Freedom Foundation yesterday published a survey of 1,200 registered voters, in which in November, before the calls for Mr. Annan’s resignation, 52.1% said that the U.N. is anti-American, while 27.3% said it was pro-American, and 20.6% answered “don’t know” or refused to participate.

Meanwhile, the anti-corruption Government Accountability Project, a leading American advocate for global whistle-blowing protection laws, was contacted by Andrew Thomson and Heidi Postlewait, two of the co-authors of a critically acclaimed book about power abuse in U.N. peacekeeping forces around the world.

The group’s December 2 letter to Mr. Annan has not yet been answered, according to Mr. Eckhard. It cites acts by U.N. officials against Mr. Thomson and Ms. Postlewait after publishing their book “Emergency Sex and Other Desperate Measures.”

Derogatory statements against the authors by top officials at the U.N., the letter informs Mr. Annan, “threaten to destroy the U.N.’s legitimacy as a leader for human rights principles such as freedom of expression.” Mr. Thomson’s termination as a U.N. employee “undoubtedly will exacerbate the severe chilling and disillusioning effect on U.N. staff.”

A staff union leader confirmed to the Sun yesterday that many of the union’s grievances at Wednesday’s meeting with Mr.Annan were based on an atmosphere in which staffers fear to complain about superiors because they’re concerned about retaliation.