UNITED NATIONS, March 4 (Xinhuanet) -- An ongoing UN women's conference adopted on Friday a declaration reaffirming a UN platform for action toward women's equality after the United States dropped all proposals to amend it, including inserting anti-abortion language.

    The statement, approved by consensus later Friday by the 40-member UN Commission on Status of Women (CSW), endorsed the platform and a declaration adopted with it at the Beijing world conference on women in 1995.

    The meeting in New York, dubbed "Beijing at Ten: Achieving Gender Equality, Development and Peace," is reviewing the world's progress toward gender equality after the Beijing conference.

    The two-week event, which will conclude on March 11, had been overshadowed by the controversy triggered by the US attempt to amend the statement.

    While reaffirming the Beijing platform and other UN documents on women, the US amendment would have specified that "they do not create any new international human rights, and that they do not include the right to abortion."

    Facing overwhelming opposition, the United States backed down on Friday. It decided to withdraw all the amendments after first abandoning the wording regarding the abortion right on Thursday.

    Head of the US delegation Ellen Sauerbrey told reporters that she was "pleased that other countries agreed" with the US positionthat no new human rights was created in the Beijing platform. Therefore, she said, the amendment was not needed.

    Addressing the CSW after the declaration's adoption, Sauerbrey reiterated the US administration's stance against abortion, drawing boos from audience, among them representatives of hundredsof non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

    "We have stated clearly and on many occasions ... that we do not recognize abortion as a method of family planning, nor do we support abortion in our reproductive health assistance," she said.

    "The United States understands that there is international consensus that the terms 'reproductive health services' and 'reproductive rights' do not include abortion or constitute support,endorsement, or promotion of abortion or the use of abortifacients."

    The US attempt to amend the declaration was denounced by many other nations and NGO representatives as "playing politics with women's lives."

    The US proposal "was completely unnecessary, an effort to inject US politics into a broad international consensus. It distracted everyone here from the real issues," said Charlotte Bunch, executive director of the Center for Women's Global Leadership.

    "They (Americans) are declaring victory and going home, as in Vietnam," she said. "The reality is that they heard loud and clearthe voices of 6,000 women here saying 'No,' echoing millions of other women worldwide." Enditem