A senior U.S. State Department official on Wednesday told nations pushing for U.N. Security Council reform to vote against any proposal calling for a major expansion of the 15-member body. Japan, Germany, Brazil and India, known as the Group of Four, are negotiating with African Union members to enlarge the 15-member U.N. Security Council to 25 or 26, including six new permanent seats. The first step in expanding the council goes through the 191-member U.N. General Assembly where Washington has only one vote, Reuters reported. Nicholas Burns, the undersecretary for political affairs, said he was telling delegations that it was too early for such an expansion. He told reporters other reforms were more important before a U.N. world summit in September, which he said President George W. Bush wanted to attend. "Our view is that it is too early to have a vote on Security Council expansion. The United Nations needs reform first," Burns said. "So we are in touch with all the parties. "And we would like to see in the future perhaps a modest expansion, because we worry about a big-bang expansion that might undercut and depreciate the effectiveness of the council. We think it is divisive." He said he was meeting some African delegates and had been in "very close contract" with Japan, Germany, Brazil and India, who would like a vote on their resolution this month. Burns repeated the U.S. view that the council eventually could be expanded by perhaps two permanent members, and some nonpermanent members, with Japan the one candidate Washington has endorsed.
