[March 19, 2006]

Japan unlikely to submit new Security Council reform plan by Sept.+

(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)TOKYO, March 19_(Kyodo) _ Japan is leaning toward giving up its plan to submit a new resolution on United Nations Security Council reform by September to expand its membership to 21 as Tokyo considers it will not be able to gain sufficient support for its proposal, government sources said Sunday.

Japan also believes the U.S. government is unlikely to change its reluctance to the expansion of the Security Council membership although Tokyo has been expecting to obtain Washington's support, the sources said.

"Only scant percent of chance exists for the Security Council reform," a senior Foreign Ministry official said.

Japan has been seeking to submit the new resolution in around April or May because budgetary negotiations at the United Nations will become active before June when the current provisional budget expires, the sources said.

The Japanese government will make a final arrangement on whether to give up the plan to submit the new resolution after examining the outcome of talks over the issue between Foreign Minister Taro Aso and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday in Sydney, they said.

Japanese Ambassador to the United Nations Kenzo Oshima, who is visiting Tokyo, will also brief Japanese government officials on the current situations surrounding the Security Council reform.

In the talks between Aso and Rice, the two sides agreed to continue cooperation in reforming the United Nations including the Security Council, with Rice saying that she would give it serious thought.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Kyodo News earlier this month that the United States thinks Japan should have a permanent seat.

But he added there are a number of formulas that are being discussed and right now the United States does not see any of them as being formulas that would get the necessary support.

Under a basic idea of the new resolution, Japan is seeking to realize the expansion of the Security Council membership from the current 15 to 21.

Under the idea, the status of new permanent member would be given to countries that stand as candidates and win the support of at least two-thirds of U.N. membership, or 128 countries, but they would not be given veto power.

Other candidates would become semi-permanent members with terms longer than the two years for current nonpermanent members.

Current nonpermanent members cannot serve more than one term consecutively but the semi-permanent members would be allowed to do so.

Japan has been explaining the idea of the new resolution to other U.N. members to obtain their support, but it has so far been unable to do so.

Japan has come up with the new resolution after the so-called Group of Four -- Brazil, Germany, India and Japan -- failed to have their resolution passed by the world body during a General Assembly session in September last year.

Brazil, Germany and India resubmitted the same resolution as last year's in early January but Japan did not join them.

The resubmitted resolution calls for adding six permanent and four nonpermanent seats to the council's current numbers of five and 10, respectively, with a 15-year freeze on veto power for new permanent members.

The African Union, which accounts for about one-fourth of the U.N. members, has also resubmitted its own resolution.

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