posted July 29, 2005 05:45 PM            

And he'll do it for free.

"I'm offering to bring it in way under budget ... and much quicker," Trump said. "I don't want any fees. I'd like to do it for humanity."

The landmark U.N. buildings on the East Side of Manhattan stand on land donated to the world body by financier and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr. The complex officially is considered international territory and not part of the USA.

The buildings, which opened in 1951, badly need repairs and updated security, said Christopher Burnham, the U.N.'s undersecretary-general for management. They are filled with asbestos and lack adequate smoke detectors and sprinklers.

The U.N. has estimated that renovation of the compound, which includes the 39-story Secretariat tower and the General Assembly building, will cost $1.2 billion. The United States has offered the U.N. a 30-year loan for that amount.

Trump said that U.N. officials' lack of expertise could make the price tag balloon to $3 billion. He said it should cost no more than $700 million.

Last week, Burnham told a congressional subcommittee scrutinizing the renovation's cost that U.N. staff would move out by June 2007 so work could begin. The renovation would be completed by 2010 or 2011.

Trump told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee he could start work right away, allow the staffers to stay put and finish the renovation in two years.

"The renovation should be done quickly, effectively, and in my opinion, by the end of 2007," Trump said.

It isn't the first time Trump has given his two cents about a New York landmark. He has sharply criticized the proposed Freedom Tower, which will rise at the site of the World Trade Center, saying that the twin towers should be rebuilt instead.

In 1986, he refurbished the Wollman skating rink in Central Park after the city failed to do so. The U.N. job, he said, wouldn't be much more complicated.

He added that moving staffers out while the work is being done is "asinine," and that when it comes to renovation, U.N. officials essentially don't know what they're doing.

Burnham said the U.N. has hired a project manager and is consulting with the Government Accountability Office and firms that specialize in renovation and construction.

"Congratulations," Trump said at the end of his testimony. "You've got yourself a mess on your hands, and it's only going to get worse."

Trump's cutting words weren't aimed only at U.N. officials. He also weighed in on New York landlords - "there is no worse human being on Earth" - and contractors - "we have major slime in New York and much of it is in the form of contractors, and every one I guarantee you will find their way to the United Nations."

Trump promised that he could handle them, and some senators said they would like nothing more than to give him the chance.

"The U.N. and U.S. taxpayers ... would be better off if they stopped the process and started from scratch," said John Hart, spokesman for Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., chairman of the subcommittee.

The senators are "certainly ... going to look at what mechanism, if any, could put Trump in charge of it," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan acknowledged earlier this week that Trump told him several years ago that he could do the renovation more cheaply and quickly than anyone else.