Saturday, May 21 2005 12:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: Intensifying their diplomatic efforts, India and four other countries seeking permanent membership of an expanded UN Security Council (UNSC) met with representatives of five regional groups and four of the current permanent members this week to win support for their proposal to expand the Council in both permanent and non-permanent categories.

The Group of Four (G-4) India, Brazil, Germany and Japan is scheduled to have discussions on Monday (May 23, 2005) with Secretary General Kofi Annan, who supports their view that consensus on expansion is preferable but that should not come in the way of increasing its membership to bring it in tune with the present ground realities.

But the "Uniting for Consensus" group or 'Coffee Club' led by Pakistan and Italy launched a counter campaign seeking expansion only in the non-permanent category and their diplomats said they were also holding discussions with members States and had met Kofi Annan yesterday (May 20, 2005).

Diplomats from G-4 group said their envoys had met with the permanent US, Russia, France and China to explain their viewpoint and plan to meet Britain next week. The United States and China have so far taken the position that consensus is necessary for expansion and Russia says it is still studying the proposals. Britain and France are generally supportive of the G-4 position.

Envoys of Pakistan, Italy, South Korea, Spain, Mexico, Algeria and Argentina, the leading members of the "Coffee Club," met with Annan yesterday to explain their view and seek his support to scuttle expansion in permanent seats.

Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram did not say whether Annan supported their viewpoint.

He told reporters that the "Uniting for Consensus" (UFC) group was looking for opening a dialogue with G-4.

"The Secretary-General was supportive of our efforts to promote a dialogue and we are very encouraged by that," he said. The UN, however, did not issue any statement on the meeting.

At the urging of UFC, General Assembly President Jean Ping had organized a meeting of the G-4 with Coffee club but it failed to make any headway with both sides reiterating their positions.

It is not yet clear if he plans to call another meeting but Assembly diplomats said he is likely to brief the press on his efforts sometime next week.

The G-4 is making efforts on three tracks meeting with member States together and individually at the United Nations and also lobbying in the capitals. Their diplomats said they plan to hold more intensive discussions with the regional groups on the framework resolution, which only calls for increasing the number of Council members to ten with the addition of six permanent and four non-permanent members.

But it does not mention any names for the permanent membership. The specific names would come up in the subsequent resolution.

Diplomats expect the original resolution to undergo some changes and language fine-tuned to make it acceptable to wide range of UN membership.