Related Event: UN Reforms

A senior U.S. State Department official on Wednesday lobbied against any proposal for a major expansion of the United Nations Security Council.

This could be another barrier for the Group of Four countries - consisting of Japan, Germany, Brazil and India - to achieve their goal of permanent seats on the Security Council.

CRI UN correspondent Xiao Yi explains the position the US holds on reforming this extremelyimportant world body.

Nicholas Burns, the US undersecretary for political affairs, told nations pushing for UN Security Council reform to vote against any proposal to expand the 15 member body, saying it was too early, and added that other reforms are more important before the UN world summit in September.

Germany, Japan, Brazil and India or the so-called G4 have called on the General Assembly to enlarge the Security Council from 15 to 25 members. This plan involves creating six new permanent seats, including two for Africa, but new members would not have veto power.

Meanwhile the African Union's draft resolution asks for the council to be enlarged to 26 seats, one more non-permanent seat than the four aspirants' proposal. It also advocates six new permanent seats but with veto privileges.

However, the US would prefer to see a more modest expansion, because, according to Burns, it is worried about a "big-bang expansion" that might undercut and depreciate the effectiveness of the council.

The US hopes that the council can eventually be expanded by two permanent members, as well as an unspecified number of non-permanent members. Japan is the candidate Washington has endorsed.

The U.S. position, however, is widely viewed as no reform at all since Japan alone would never be approved by the assembly without seats for developing nations and Washington has not submitted its own proposal.

On the other hand, the US has called on UN members to support Secretary-General Kofi Annan's other proposals, such as management, budget and administrative reforms, a new human rights council to replace the "discredited Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a peace-building commission and a comprehensive treaty on terrorism.

Burns said these reforms should be put before reform of the Security Council.

A change in the council composition needs a two-thirds approval or 128 votes in the 191-member General Assembly. The last step in the procedure involves a change in the U.N. Charter and would need approval from the five current permanent council members and here it can be vetoed by any of the current five permanent members.

Among the five powers, China is also lobbying against the Group of Four, Russia is uncertain and France and Britain support them.

Expanding the Security Council was given momentum this year by Annan, who argued the body, responsible for peace and security, was unrepresentative and reflected the balance of power at the end of World War Two.

Xiao Yi, CRI news New York.