UNITED NATIONS – The description of America as “stingy” by the U.N. official coordinating the relief efforts in south Asia raised a furor yesterday all over radio talk shows, TV programs, and among bloggers, turning the issue of donations into a clash of political sensibilities.

An undersecretary-general, Jan Egeland, quickly backtracked from his statement yesterday, saying he has been “misinterpreted.” Speaking to reporters after a meeting with representatives of seven nations affected by the weekend disaster, he said, “The immediate humanitarian response is in its early days and the United States, at $15 million, is one of the most generous pledges so far.”

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Powell went on several TV morning shows, bristling at the comment Mr. Egeland made on Monday. “The United States is not stingy, we are the greatest contributor to international relief efforts in the world,” Mr. Powell told CNN. “This administration has a particularly good record in increasing the amount of assistance that we give to the world.”

In addition to the original $15 million that America has pledged to the earthquake victims, the State Department yesterday announced that its Agency for International Development would offer $20 million more. “We have identified an additional $20 million that we will be working to make available,” said State Department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Mr. Egeland’s original comment, made during a Monday press conference at the U.N., betrayed a profound difference between the politics of giving in America and his native northern Europe; he is Norwegian.

“It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really,” he said, referring to rich nations. “There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy.” Saying that foreign aid is the direct result of low taxation, he stressed that American and European politicians “believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It’s not true. They want to give more.”

In his retraction yesterday, however, Mr. Egeland pointed out the facet of the American tax system which encourages donations to charitable causes, including disaster relief, by making them deductible. He said that in addition to governmental aid to the tsunami victims in south Asia, $10 million has already been pledged to nongovernmental organizations, adding, “The United States has a lot of NGOs,” which have also joined in the relief efforts.

“I would note that I think America and Americans have a long and proud history of private charitable donations and I’d expect this case to be no different,” Mr. Ereli said yesterday at the state department. He could not yet provide numbers regarding private donations to the earthquake relief.

Mr. Egeland met with representatives of donating countries to chart what is known at the U.N. as a “constitutional appeal,” which will be launched next week in Geneva, in the hopes of raising an undisclosed sum for the recovery efforts. Despite the controversy, an American representative at the meeting and Mr. Egeland displayed “no animosity,” one participant told The New York Sun.

On another political front, Israel yesterday tried to downplay news stories that said it was downgrading its relief efforts in Sri Lanka. “An air force plane loaded with medicine, food, etc., is due to take off soon to Colombo,” Foreign Ministry spokesman David Saranga told the Sun last night.

He said that earlier, Sri Lankan officials told Israel that because of heavy air traffic due to the high volume of assistance flowing into the country, Israel should hold off the flight of the military plane. According to initial reports in the Israeli press, the Sri Lankan authorities objected to the military nature of the Israeli assistance.

The plane’s relief crew of 150, including 60 soldiers, was downgraded to a smaller team that would accompany the Israeli aid convoy in Sri Lanka, according to the BBC Web site. Sri Lankan Ambassador Diffa Digeratna told the Jerusalem Post the change was due to the “lack of accommodations in Colombo.” The island’s Muslim minority has objected to Sri Lanka’s renewal of diplomatic relations in 2000. Despite the violence that ensued in Israel, however, Mr. Digeratna remained in Tel Aviv when other ambassadors left the country.