Millennium Summit to call for enlargement of Security Council

NEW YORK, Aug. 3 Kyodo - World leaders at the U.N. Millennium Summit in September will call for speedy reform and enlargement of the Security Council, according to a working draft declaration obtained by Kyodo News on Thursday.

The draft says the leaders will call for ''the speedy reform and enlargement of the Security Council, making it more representative, effective and legitimate in the eyes of all the world's peoples.''

Currently, there are five permanent Security Council members with veto powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States. Japan is pushing to be included in an expanded council.

Reform of the council has been contemplated for the past several years by a special task force set up under the U.N. General Assembly.

But no visible progress has been made due to sharp differences over such matters as the extent of increase and whether to grant new permanent members veto powers.

The statement on reform of the Security Council comes in the last of the draft's eight sections under the heading ''Strengthening the United Nations,'' while other sections include ''Peace, Security and Disarmament'' and ''Development and Poverty Eradication.''

The draft has been compiled by Namibian Foreign Minister Theo-Ben Grirab who is expected to chair the three-day summit which starts Sept. 6 at the U.N. headquarters in New York with leaders from most of the 188 member countries participating.

It calls for enhancing the effectiveness of the United Nations in the maintenance of security ''by strengthening the capacity of the Organization to conduct peacekeeping operations.''
==Kyodo

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