Geneva: The Trump administration warned Tuesday that it could pull out of the UN Human Rights Council unless the body ends what Washington calls the whitewashing of dictators' abuses and unfair attacks on Israel.

"The United States is looking carefully at this Council and our participation in it. We see some areas for significant strengthening," Nikki Haley, US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Geneva forum, opening a three-week session.

US permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Nikki Haley delivers a speech about the current humanitarian situation in the world. Credit:AP

Haley is the first US United Nations ambassador to address the council, and her address is part of a Trump administration campaign to demand reform to what Haley has called hidebound and biased UN bureaucracies.

The Council's critical stance of Israel has long been a contentious issue for the United States, Israel's main ally.