Draft proposes adding 7 to Security Council

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Cyprus and Germany have circulated a draft text that proposes adding seven new members to the U.N. Security Council, the latest attempt to try to break a deadlock on the issue of expanding the council.

For more than a decade, the U.N. General Assembly has been struggling with ways to expand the Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body.

Among the top candidates for permanent seats are Germany, Japan, India, Brazil and an undetermined African state.

Critics say the composition of the world's 15-nation watchdog of international peace and security is outdated and must adapt to a much-changed world in the 21st century. Now diplomats say there is new momentum for council expansion.

Recent attempts to launch formal negotiations on expanding the council have failed. But last year the president of the U.N. General Assembly said it was time to try again to break the deadlock and help jump-start formal negotiations.

Germany, Cyprus, the Netherlands and Great Britain worked on a compromise proposal that attempts to link the many seemingly irreconcilable positions on reforming the council.

The result was a confidential draft proposal, obtained by Reuters, that calls for an expansion of the Security Council to 22 from the present 15.

The draft says two of the new seats would go to Africa, two to Asia, one to Latin America and the Caribbean, one to western Europe and one to eastern Europe. But the membership terms are left open, with possibilities ranging from permanent to semi-permanent membership to standard two-year elected membership.