"Experience teaches us that we must carefully distinguish between what looks good on paper and what works in the real world," Richardson told delegates to the International Criminal Court conference in Rome last week, explaining why Washington wanted such a body under some degree of control by the UN Security Council.

Though he insisted that the United States wanted to punish war criminals by creating such a Court, Richardson argued: "We must remember that it will not operate in a political vacuum."

Shortly after Richardson left a disappointed crowd here Wednesday, US officials confirmed that the former New Mexico representative would be named by President Bill Clinton to head the US Department of Energy. On Thursday, Clinton announced that transfer, and Richardson's replacement as UN ambassador by longtime State Department trouble-shooter Richard Holbrooke.

But the Rome appearance demonstrated vividly how Richardson -- an affable, low-key politician who stepped into the shoes of the more conservative and hawkish Madeleine Albright when she became Secretary of State -- had become worn down by Washington's isolation at the United Nations.

Forever telling his colleagues about the demands of "the real world", Richardson had realised that his own office could not operate in a political vacuum. He was unanimously recommended to his position following Albright's promotion in January 1997, and hopes were high among some UN diplomats that tensions with Washington would ease with his arrival. Richardson had already acquired a reputation as a skilled negotiator following trips to Iraq and North Korea to resolve thorny diplomatic crises. Combining a maverick tendency to travel to nations that Washington branded as enemies with a cheery willingness to mute hardline policies, Richardson attempted a few more trouble-shooting missions as UN ambassador.  Last summer, he negotiated with President Laurent Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to allow UN investigations into alleged massacres by the new leader's allies. This winter, he encouraged Afghanistan's Taliban militias to renew peace talks with their northern opponents.

Both missions, however, revealed the limitations of the UN ambassador's work. Human rights officials criticised the deal with Kabila, which never resulted in permission for the work the UN investigators wanted to perform. The Taliban soon rejected talks and resumed blockades of towns held by the former governing Northern Alliance. Some of the problems were blamed on Richardson, who was accused of naivete in his diplomatic work. "When Kabila's ministers read him the agreement on UN inspections in French, they had changed some of the terms he negotiated in English very significantly - but he just nodded and smiled," one German rights lawyer told IPS.

Others, however, showed the pressures that the ambassador uneasily had to accommodate. Albright kept a tight leash on the UN mission, and often prevented Richardson from speaking out on controversial issues, one US diplomat told IPS.

More importantly, the challenge Holbrooke - widely credited with the negotiations that halted the Bosnian civil war in 1995, and the artchitect of that nation's Dayton peace accords - will face still remains: the steady erosion of international support for US diplomatic goals. The hawkish foreign policy adopted by Albright and furthered by the Republican-led US Congress has angered normally steady US allies, notably through the enactment of tighter sanctions - including penalties for third countries - on Cuba, Libya and Iran. Pressure to lift UN sanctions on Iraq has grown, leaving Washington in the uncomfortable position of the sole obstacle to ending an increasingly ruinous embargo.

Meanwhile, Richardson faced a defeat last December when the Congress scuppered a deal he had forged to repay more than 850 million dollars out of some 1.5 billion dollars in unpaid UN dues. A later agreement likely to reach Clinton this summer includes language restricting support for abortion advocacy, which almost guarantees a presidential veto. As a result, Washington has found itself cast as a deadbeat which nevertheless dominates every UN debate - whether it is refusing to sign a 1997 treaty to ban landmines, seeking Security Council oversight (and a concomitant US veto) over the International Criminal Court or chafing at climate-control reduction proposals.

Those problems dampened Richardson's sunny spirit, and could well do the same to Holbrooke, a blunt State Department veteran at times branded as cocky by other diplomats.   But Holbrooke, who has revolved between a stint on Wall Street and unsuccessful efforts to broker peace in Cyprus, has two advantages, one human rights official conceded: immense self-confidence and good relations with the press. "At least the media will be happy," the official added. Farhan Haq/IPS