By Sonali Verma (sintex)

NEW DELHI, India, June 2, 1995 (Reuter) - United Nations officials said Friday that some of the nations participating in the Fourth World Conference on Women bitterly objected to portions of the draft agenda, but they expected to reach a consensus.

"A consensus has not been reached on 45, maybe 40 percent of the document," Patricia Licuanan, who chairs the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, told a New Delhi news conference. "At the U.N., we always like consensus."

"But I am confident that everything is being done to resolve unresolved issues," Licuanan added.

The Fourth World Conference on Women will be held in Beijing in September, with 185 nations participating in the event.

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The European Commission said Thursday it would press China to facilitate NGO participation at the NGO Forum, also originally scheduled to be held in Beijing.

"Ours is a governments' meeting to decide women's issues," the U.N. conference's Secretary-General Gertrude Mongella said in New Delhi. "It is a conference on women, not a conference for women. A conference for women would be diluting the purpose.

"Some of the issues of women are quite political. We have to be careful with political issues," Mongella told reporters.

The European Women's Lobby, which represents women's groups in the European Union, issued an open letter this week urging that both the forum and conference be postponed.

Mongella emphasized she was urging governments to include NGOs in their official delegations. "I am very keen on making sure this happens," she said.

"There is still some negotiation on where the NGO forum will be," Licuanan said. "NGOs are important to the main U.N. meeting. The partnership between NGOs and the government is important."

"The question of Tibetan NGOs is still at consideration," Mongella said. "We are still in the process of deciding (NGO) accreditation to the conference." She said the decision would be made toward the end of June.