UNITED NATIONS - Having the United Nations on your doorstep has its advantages but it also means letting world leaders visit once a year -- even those who call you the devil, denounce your foreign policy as neocolonialism and question the Holocaust.

President Bush was verbally assaulted by a string of statesmen in New York this week, from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton, a longtime critic of the United Nations, said the anti-American rhetoric that dominated the headlines at this year's UN General Assembly would show the world body in its true colors for the US public.

"I think that there is perhaps more of an inclination to vent those emotions here because they think they are more likely to get a positive reception," Bolton told reporters on Friday. "But I think that behavior doesn't do them any credit, and it certainly doesn't benefit the United Nations."

Chavez led the charge against Bush, branding him "the devil" at the United Nations and then ridiculing him as a puffed-up John Wayne wannabe at a later New York event.

Bolivian President Evo Morales brandished a coca leaf in the General Assembly hall, accusing Bush of neocolonialism, blackmail and trying to humiliate Latin American countries.

Ahmadinejad railed against US aggression and violation of international law in his UN speech and then reveled in sparring with critics who invited him to one of America's top think tanks, the Council on Foreign Relations.

At that event, The New York Times quoted Ahmadinejad as repeatedly questioning evidence of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were killed by the Nazis.

GULF IN OPINIONS

Bolton, who once said "it wouldn't make a bit of difference" if the UN headquarters building lost 10 stories, said he was not surprised by the anti-American rhetoric.

"I think it is important, frankly, for people to hear this because I do think it's a reflection of what some of these governments think, and I don't think it helps (them) when the American people get to hear it directly," he said.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abubakr al-Qirbi said there was a clear gulf in opinions between the US administration and people in the Middle East.

At the United Nations "there is no question that there is some anti-American (sentiment)," he told reporters.

"Unfortunately any criticism of American policies turns into as if it is against the American people, and I think everybody in the world respects and admires the American people, democracy in America, and so on."

Even allies who five years ago were lining up to express their solidarity and sympathy after the September 11 attacks, appeared to distance themselves from the world's only superpower.

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