Tuesday, March 22 2005 14:37 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: India, Brazil, Germany and Japan, seeking permanent seats on an expanded UN Security Council (UNSC), said that they hope the General Assembly will adopt a resolution by summer that will give them seats on the UN's most powerful body.

But Pakistan, Italy and other middle-size countries are still pushing a rival plan to expand the 15-member council.

After 10 years of debate about Security Council reform, Secretary General Kofi Annan told the 191 UN member States yesterday (Mar 21, 2005) that he wants a decision on council expansion before world leaders meet in United States in September to hopefully adopt the most sweeping overhaul of the United Nations since it was founded 60 years ago.

A joint statement by India, Brazil, Germany and Japan welcomed Annan's report and said that the four countries would work with all member States to reach agreement on council reform based on Model A.

This option would add six new permanent members and three non-permanent members. The likely candidates for permanent seats under this plan include Brazil, Germany, India, Japan and two African nations, with South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt the top contenders.

The other would create a new tier of eight semi-permanent members, two each from Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas who would serve for four years, subject to renewal, plus one non-permanent seat. This option called Model B is supported by Pakistan, Italy, South Korea and other middle-powers.

The statement noted that recent General Assembly debates have demonstrated that "a clear majority of States" favour adding permanent and non-permanent members from both developed and developing countries.

A UN diplomat put the number of supporters at 120 States.

"It is the hope of the Group of 4 (G-4) that, with the support of the overwhelming majority of the membership, it would be possible to adopt a resolution on Security Council reform by summer," the statement said.

France's UN Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said that it was a realistic goal.

"My personal assessment as ambassador here, I think it's achievable," he said. "It's not given, but it's achievable."

Germany's U.N. Ambassador Gunter Pleuger said that the four countries plan a meeting March 31 with member States to launch the reform effort and start building support and putting together a resolution.

UN diplomats said that supporters of Model B are also planning a meeting with member States in April.

Usually, decisions on important issues like Security Council reform require consensus of all 191 member States, and Annan said that he hoped an agreement could be reached. But if "after healthy discussion" General Assembly President Jean Ping believes it can't, Annan said that he should call for a vote.

While the Group of 4 would like veto power, Annan backed the high-level panel's recommendation that no new council members should have veto-power.