U.N. assembly opens door to enlarged Security Council

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. General Assembly opened the door on Monday to expanding the Security Council by calling for full-scale negotiations on adding new members to the United Nations' most powerful body.

Japan is one of the top candidates for a permanent seat on an expanded council, along with Germany, India, Brazil and an undetermined African nation.

Japan's U.N. Ambassador Yukio Takasu called the assembly's decision "historic".

After hours of talks that several diplomats involved in said nearly collapsed, the assembly unanimously passed a resolution approving "inter-governmental negotiations" on expanding the council to begin by Feb. 28, 2009.

Several U.N. diplomats described the breakthrough as "historic", saying it greatly increased the likelihood that the council will become larger and more representative of the world of the 21st century.

The process of expanding the council began in 1993 when a U.N. working group was given the task of drawing up a plan for enlarging the 15-nation body. But the committee worked on the basis of consensus, something it could never achieve due to disagreements among key members like Italy and Germany.

Even if the inter-governmental negotiations strike a deal on enlarging the council, which has the power to authorize sanctions, trade embargoes and military action, the process of ratification by U.N. member states will likely take years and there is no guarantee it will succeed.

But diplomats said moving the discussion out of the deadlocked committee early next year and putting it into the hands of the 192 U.N. member states will capitalize on the widely-held view that an enlargement is long overdue.