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The US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell was repeatedly interrupted by heckling and boos Thursday as he defended President Bush's record on aiding the poor and protecting the environment on the final day of a world development summit that disappointed many activists.

Delegates from nearly 200 countries concluded the 10-day U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development by approving a 70-page agreement that addresses issues ranging from bolstering depleted fisheries to the promotion of partnerships between corporations and developing countries to deliver water and electricity to the poor.

The final accord, intended to ensure that pledges made 10 years ago at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro are fulfilled, makes few firm commitments on funding or timetables, and at this evening's closing session, several speakers complained that it did not do enough to address the worldwide scourge of AIDS, smokestack emissions or the uneven benefits of global trade. Environmentalists and representatives from many poor countries claimed the accord had been watered down by U.S. delegates pushing a pro-business agenda.

Bush was one of the few world leaders to skip the conference, and the United States was widely viewed as the key obstacle to setting firm targets on issues such as bolstering the use of renewable energy sources. "The Bush administration is out of step both with domestic public opinion and global public opinion. That was very evident here today," said Paul Joffe, director of international affairs for the National Wildlife Federation.

Powell, the top-ranking U.S. official at the conference, had spoken only a few sentences of his five-minute speech before he was drowned out by jeers and chants of "Shame on Bush!" Protesters, most of them gathered in the rear of a hall filled with government officials and delegates, also attempted to unfurl a banner reading "Betrayed by Governments."

The protests began when Powell mentioned the threat of famine in southern Africa and singled out Zimbabwe for making the problem worse with its "lack of respect for human rights and the rule of law." The protests continued as Powell criticized Zambia, another hunger-stricken southern African nation, for refusing food aid in the form of genetically modified corn, and when he linked free trade to development and insisted that the United States was commited to halting global warming.

"The United States is taking action to meet environmental challenges, including global climate change, not just rhetoric," Powell said as the protesters erupted in more boos and the police removed about a dozen. "We are committed to a multibillion-dollar program to develop and deploy advanced technologies to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions."

"Thank you, I have now heard you. I ask that you hear me," Powell told the protesters as South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma repeatedly banged her gavel to silence the hall.

In contrast, many other speakers earned applause when they reaffirmed their commitment to the Kyoto Protocol, the 1997 treaty on global warming that the Bush administration rejected last year.

Some speakers expressed concern that partnerships, or privatization of public utilities, give business too much authority and have, in some instances, driven up the cost of water and electricity beyond the ability of the world's poor to pay. But a senior State Deparment official said that the partnerships announced by the United States had drawn interest from many nations and nongovernmental organizations eager to learn more.

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan acknowledged that expectations for the conference had been too high and warned against hoping for "conferences like this to bring miracles." But Hugo Chavez, the leftist president of Venezuela, appeared to reflect a more widely held sentiment among delegates when he said the summit had turned out to be a 10-day "dialogue of the deaf."

Richard Boucher, the State Department spokesman, said Powell shrugged off the protests directed at him. "His comment was that this kind of thing happens," Boucher said.

Powell told reporters, "Activist hecklers always get attention, but I was more impressed by the reaction I received from my fellow ministers."

Powell arrived during a speech by the Palestinian minister of the environment, who condemned Israeli occupation of the West Bank on environmental grounds.

"The Israelis have killed 150,000 birds, cows and sheep. Thousands of beehives have been buried alive," Yousef Abu Safieh said in Arabic. Powell, chatting with aides, did not put on earphones providing a translation of Abu Safieh's speech.

In addition to his 10-minute appearance at the conference hall, Powell held a half-dozen meetings with European, African and Asian officials and hosted a number of events designed to showcase U.S. commitment to clean water and renewable resources. At St. David's Marist College, a nearby boys' school used by U.S. officials to hold training sessions on sustainable development for conference delegates, Powell presided over official announcements of U.S. initiatives, including a joint U.S.-Japanese effort to provide safe drinking water to poor nations and a partnership among six African governments, European nations and conservation and timber groups to protect vast rain forests in the Congo Basin.

"My only regret is that on this trip I cannot visit each and every one of the Congo Basin nations," said Powell, whose African trip takes him to three countries in a little over 48 hours.

On Thursday, Powell is to travel to Angola and then to Gabon, where he has scheduled 10 minutes to walk through a rain forest.