Mutineers effortlessly seized control of the eastern Congolese capital of Goma, laying claim to the region's political and commercial capital, and embarrassing Congolese armed forces and U.N. peacekeepers that did little to stall their advance.

In New York, France and the United States this evening reached agreement on a draft resolution that condemns the M23 mutineers' capture of Goma, and demands their immediate withdrawal from the city. The resolution -- which is expected to be voted on tonight -- will impose additional sanctions on M23's commanders and ask U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to report on "external support" for the rebel group. 

The French-American pact followed days of difficult negotiations over the appropriate response to the crisis, and whether to blame the mutineers alleged backers -- Rwanda and Uganda. France, a longtime ally of Congo, favored directly naming the regional powers. But the United States, which has close ties to Rwanda, opposes such action.

An independent U.N. panel has accused Rwanda, and to a lesser extent Uganda, of organizing, arming, training, and financing the mutiny in eastern Congo.

In recent days, the mutineers -- who allegedly take their orders from Rwandan Defense Minister James Kaberebe -- have received supplies of advance military equipment, including night vision goggles and mortars.

The panel, which was established by the U.N. Security Council to monitor compliance with the country's arms embargo, has accused the M23 of committed widespread human rights abuses, including murder, rape, and the forced recruitment of children.

Rwanda and Uganda have denied playing any role in backing the mutineers.

France, which has the lead on Security Council action in the Congo, has privately expressed an interest in sanctioning Rwanda, or at least citing their alleged role in aiding the insurgency. But they have faced resistance from the United States, according to Security Council diplomats.

The French mission said today in a tweet that the "proposed text requests" that Ban "report on external support to M23 in the coming days [and] expresses readiness to take action." The United States, however, raised concern about that provision, according to council diplomats.

The U.S. mission to the United Nations declined to discuss the content of its closed-door discussions. But a U.S. official said: "Our concern about the situation in Eastern Congo and the M23's appalling military campaign is clear, and our objective is to end the rebellion. Any action by the Security Council should be measured against whether it supports the ongoing diplomatic efforts toward that goal."

The debate in the council unfolded as M23 marched largely unopposed into the eastern Congolese city of Goma.

The U.N. deputy spokesman, Eduardo del Buey, cited reports that the M23 mutineers have "wounded civilians, continued abductions of women and children, looted property and intimidated journalists and those who have attempted to resist their controls."

Del Buey said that as of midday the U.N. still had control over the city's airport and that 17 U.N. rapid reaction forces were carrying out patrols in Goma and would "continue all efforts within their capacity to protect civilians from imminent threat."

France's foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, sharply criticized the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, known as MONUSCO, saying it was "absurd" that a force that numbers 17,000 peacekeepers, (although far fewer are deployed in the area of fighting), was unable to repel the advance of several hundred insurgents into Goma. "MONUSCO is 17,000 soldiers, but sadly it was not in a position to prevent what happened," Fabius said.

Britain, meanwhile, urged its nationals not to travel to the conflict zone.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, meanwhile, said that his government's minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, was headed to the region to assess developments.

"The M23 must withdraw their forces immediately and allow legitimate government control to be restored," Hague said.  "I urge once more those with influence over the M23 to encourage them to stop fighting and to withdraw immediately."

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The U.N.'s newly renovated landmark building on First Avenue was still reeling Wednesday from the impact of superstorm Sandy, which flooded Turtle Bay's third basement with several feet of water, paralyzing the building's electronic nerve center and preventing many U.N. staffers from returning to their offices. The U.N. issued an emergency bulletin today that said the building is due to open tomorrow, though offices above floor 17 will not be accessible.

The white tent that serves as the official delegates entryway to the United Nations General Assembly was ripped to shreds by the gale force winds. A large white sheet of plastic that stretched over the U.N. General Assembly dome is also stripped away, creating the impression, if not the reality, that the world's parliament had been cracked open to the elements.

The United Nations slowly emerged from storm today, as some U.N. officials either worked from their computers and Blackberrys at home, or returned to a network of U.N. offices beyond the main compound that had better withstood the storm's punch. But the U.N. secretariat's server appeared to be misfiring even today, as multiple emails sent to U.N. officials were returned to sender hours later.

The Security Council scheduled its first post-storm meeting in a temporary conference room on the U.N. compound north lawn building, which has served as Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's office throughout the $1 billion-plus restoration of U.N. headquarters.

The Security Council extended the mandate for African Union peacekeepers in Somalia before it was due to expire today and adopted a statement promoting the role of women in peace and security.

But there were no plans to address some of the council's more pressing issues, including the Syrian ceasefire that never really took hold over last weekend. "I don't thing there will be much substance today," said one council diplomat.

The U.N. Development Program is "slowly beginning to return to normal," said Heraldo Munoz, an assistant secretary general at UNDP, who returned to work at his office across the street from U.N. headquarters. "We have several people working, mainly people living in Manhattan, but we are in communication with those people who could not make it and are working from their homes."

The flooding at U.N. headquarters has inflicted "severe damage to the building's communications infrastructure," he said. "There was flooding that affected the machinery and power that cools the computer machinery" that runs the building.

Another U.N. diplomat said that the Secretariat's "information and communications technology and electrical infrastructure are very, very damaged. UNDP's and UNICEF's are in much better shape. There will be many questions about this in the coming days."

The U.N. has previously been closed on the occasional workday, including on 9/11, when U.N. staff were evacuated amid fears that terrorists would attack the diplomatic center. But U.N. officials said today that they could not recall another episode when a natural disaster had forced the U.N. Secretariat to shutter its doors for so long, three days so far.

As of this morning, U.N. security continued to prohibit all but repair crews from entering headquarters.

Much of the U.N.'s diplomatic community remained partially cut off from their colleagues, communicating with Blackberrys that stopped working for much of the day on Tuesday.

Many U.N.-based diplomats, particularly younger, mid-level staff who don't reside in official residences, live in lower Manhattan, which suffered a massive blackout, or in the suburbs of Westchester County, which also saw significant losses of electricity.

"The impact for me has been total isolation," said one European diplomat posted at the United Nations. "I've been totally stuck in a powerless building.... I have very little insight to what's been going on" at headquarters.

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Haitian President René Préval on Wednesday will unveil a $3.9 billion plan to begin to radically reshape Haiti's post-earthquake economy and physical infrastructure, including hundreds of millions of dollars to erect disaster resistant buildings and redesign the country's transportation system, according to a Haitian reconstruction action plan (pdf) made public today.

The plan, which Preval will present to donors at a U.N. conference in New York, would essentially redirect much of the country's economic development outside Port-au-Prince, and create new provisional economic hubs to compete with the capital. It provides the first detailed account of how Haiti and its international backers plan to spend the money over the next 18 months.

The March 31 reconstruction conference will be hosted by the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and include senior representatives from Brazil, France, Spain, Canada, and the European Union. The event, which will also include an appearance by the former U.S. President Bill Clinton, who is serving as the U.N.'s Haiti reconstruction czar, is designed to mobilize massive international funds for the island country after the immediate earthquake recovery phase is completed.

"Rebuilding Haiti does not mean returning to the situation that prevailed before the earthquake," according to Preval's 56 page action plan. "It means addressing all these areas of vulnerability, so that the vagaries of nature or natural disasters never again inflict such suffering or cause so much damage and loss."

Haiti's reconstruction action plan marks the first phase of highly ambitious reconstruction effort that could more than $11 billion on Haiti over the next decade. It calls for refurbishing the airport and main port, building a new airport and two new seaports, and laying 600 kilometers of road throughout the country to promote trade, tourism, and access to health-care centers.

The Haitian proposal is based on the findings of post-disaster needs assessment study that was carried out by Haitian and international reconstruction specialists. It calls for the establishment a multiple-donor fiduciary fund that would help oversee international reconstruction funds, and a temporary committee for rebuilding Haiti, later to be folded into the Agency for Development in Haiti, which would give the Haitian government a role in determining reconstruction priorities.

"The situation that the country is facing is difficult but not desperate," the action plan states. "In many ways it is an opportunity to unite Haitians of all classes and origins in a shared project to rebuild the country on new foundations."

On Jan. 12, Haiti endured its worst natural catastrophe in 200 years, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake that killed more than 300,000 people, destroyed 105,000 homes, 50 hospitals and health centers, 1,300 school and university buildings and wiped out the presidential palace, parliament, and most other government buildings in the capital.

The overall cost of the damage and losses to economic productivity amounted to more than $8 billion, according to the plan. More than 1.3 million people have been displaced by the earthquake and are living in hundreds of spontaneously built settlements and camps.

"That is our challenge in New York -- not to rebuild but to ‘build back better,' to create a new Haiti," Ban wrote Monday in a Washington Post opinion piece. "Under the plan, an Interim Haiti Reconstruction Commission would channel nearly $4 billion into specific projects and programs during the next 18 months. Over the next 10 years, reconstruction needs will total an estimated $11.5 billion."

Ban is expected to announce Wednesday that he will instruct Edmond Mulet, who is serving as his temporary envoy in Haiti, to head the U.N. mission and help support the reconstruction effort over the next year. Mulet told reporters at a press briefing in New York that the Haiti government would have to play a central role in leading the relief and reconstruction effort in Haiti.

Mulet acknowledged that the government's capacity to oversee such a massive rebuilding effort was limited, noting that about a quarter of the country's civil servants were killed in the earthquake. But he said that if the international community did not focus more attention on supporting Haiti's capacity to govern itself, the U.N. may be required to keep peacekeepers in the country "for the next 200 years."

The sluggish international response to the earthquake that leveled Haiti's capital and wiped out so many of the United Nations staff holds serious political risks for the U.N. and its secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, who has struggled to restore order to a chaotic relief effort.

Nearly a week after the 7.0 earthquake smashed Port-au-Prince, large numbers of Haitians are struggling to find food and water or fleeing to the countryside. As Ban traveled through the Haitian capital Sunday with a 17-vehicle envoy filled with top U.N. brass and journalists, destitute Haitians pleaded for food.

The crisis in Haiti is shaping up as the biggest test of Ban's leadership since he was selected to lead the organization three years ago. As other major natural disasters have shown, including Hurricane Katrina, failure to step up to the moment can have steep political costs.

Immediately following the quake, Ban himself appeared slow to recognize the extent of the devastation. Nearly 14 hours after the earthquake, the secretary-general faced the U.N. press corps for the first time, and estimated that the death toll "may well be in the hundreds" -- not the tens of thousands predicted by one of his own officials.

The upbeat assessment reflected the tendency of a cautious U.N. leader who has a habit of downplaying the severity of crises. Over the past 24 hours, Ban's top advisors have portrayed the situation as calm even as reports of disorder have dominated media accounts.

The U.N. effort has been hobbled from the outset. The quake severed the U.N.'s communications, clogged the roads with broken concrete and debris, and severely damaged the city's main port. Much of the leadership of the U.N. mission in Haiti was killed or buried under rubble. The U.N.'s top relief coordinator survived the earthquake, but his wife and children were killed.

Susan E. Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United States, praised the U.N.'s immediate handling of the crisis, saying, "Ban Ki-moon and the entire U.N. leadership team have done extraordinary work under extremely difficult circumstances. Grieving and wounded colleagues and officials have risen in this hour of need to provide assistance to the people of Haiti."

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