UNITED NATIONS – While some of the most stinging attacks on American policy remained implicit yesterday, outward criticism of the Bush administration was a recurring theme here in Brazilian-organized events on the eve of a major speech by Mr. Bush today.

The attack against America’s actions abroad is expected to continue today in a speech by Secretary-General Annan, who last week told the BBC that the Iraq war was “illegal.” In his speech, Mr. Annan is expected to reiterate his call for strengthening the rule of international law, referring to its origin in the Hammurabi code in “the land we now call Iraq,” according to U.N. sources.

Yesterday’s events, along with today’s speech by Mr. Annan, will be seen by many as a challenge to the Bush administration. “No nation must feel excluded” from the rule of international law, Mr. Annan is expected to say in his speech, in which he will equate attacks on noncombatants by insurgents in Iraq, and the Abu Ghraib affair, where “Iraqi prisoners [were] disgracefully abused.”

Rather than concentrating on the war against terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, the international community should address poverty, said the Brazilian president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

“How many times is it necessary to repeat that the most destructive weapon of mass destruction today is poverty,?” he demanded.

The event he organized concentrated on poverty. An earlier event was on globalization. Both took place on the eve of the opening of the General Assembly’s annual debate. Many of the speakers demanded the redistribution of wealth between the rich and poor nations.

President Chirac flew from Paris for a 12-hour stay, just to meet his Brazilian counterpart and attend the events. He avoided a meeting with Mr. Bush in the main event scheduled to start today.

“The price of selfishness is rebellion,” Mr. Chirac declared. And in what was widely perceived as a barb at America, he added, “There is no future in globalization that tolerates predatory behavior and a hoarding of profits by a minority.”

Mr. Chirac called for an international “political consensus” on those issues, and said they should be brought before the assembly, as well as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He stressed that he would urge his British counterpart, Prime Minister Blair, to raise it as well.

In what some diplomats here considered a snub aimed at Mr. Lula, the only American representative at the event was the agriculture secretary, Ann Veneman.