The U.N. General Assembly on Saturday, December 24, approved a 5 percent decrease in the United Nations' budget for 2012-2013 over the previous two-year period, only the second time in 50 years that the world body has slashed its spending.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the 193-nation General Assembly for reducing costs at a time when governments around the world are cutting expenditures and implementing austerity measures in response to the global financial crisis.

"I am here to thank you for solidifying, with me, our compact to make the most of our resources ... to cut fat ... and to continue fulfilling every one of the critical global mandates entrusted to the United Nations," Ban said in the written text of a speech distributed by his press department. The deal for a $5.15 billion budget, which compares with $5.41 billion spent in 2010-2011, came after marathon negotiations that ran all night from Friday, Dec. 23 into Saturday, Dec. 24. A deal was not clinched until Saturday, Dec. 24 morning.

As in past years, the biennial budget negotiations were marked by a tussle between poor countries seeking to raise U.N. development spending and major developed countries - the biggest budget contributors - trying to rein the figures in as they struggle to reduce expenditures in their own national budgets, Reuters reported.