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Roman Catholic and Muslim countries want to reduce the emphasis on family planning and increase parental authority.
Countries like Libya, Sudan and Argentina, backed by the Vatican, argue that there is a drift towards accepting abortion and towards an erosion of family and religious values.
But the majority of nations agree with decisions made five years ago in Cairo, that better sex education, birth control advice and access to contraceptives is the way to reduce population growth.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said: "Too many women still cannot choose when or whether to become pregnant [and] too many women resort to abortions that are not safe."
The UK International Development Secretary, Clare Short, told the conference that keeping the truth from sexually active adolescents is not the way to reduce population growth.
She said that 500,000 women die every year as a result of pregnancy, 15% of them from unsafe abortions.
"One billion adolescents all over the world are sexually active ... we can't go on keeping them ignorant," she added.
One Catholic country, the Philippines, has accepted the education argument and is providing sex education and contraception in defiance of the Church.
Funding shortfall
The UN General Assembly sessions on population is an attempt to upgrade the Cairo agreement.
Since 1960 the world's population has doubled to 6bn and there are fears that without action it could be as high as 10bn by 2050.
The other issue testing the meeting in New York is money. Nobody is spending as much on population polices as they promised in 1995.
The rich donor countries are only spending about a third of what they promised.
The conference, at the UN's New York headquarters, has three days to come up with a final document.
But no decisions will be binding on governments.
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From Our Own Correspondent
Letter From America
Asia-Pacific
Population: Why we should worry
(29 Jun 99 | World population)
Listeners told of West's 'woeful' family planning effort
(29 Jun 99 | World population)
Planet feels strains of people pressure
(29 Jun 99 | World population)
Rich nations put children at risk
(11 Feb 99 | International)
Vatican warns against 'back door' abortion
(10 Feb 99 | International)
Sex education to halt population boom
(21 Jan 99 | Health)
United Nations Population Fund
International Conference on Population and development
Population Action International
World Health Organisation
The Holy See
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