At the extraordinary summit of African heads of states on August 4 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, African leaders announced on Thursday evening a non-consensus on the proposal by Brazil, Germany, Japan and India, known as the Group of Four (G4), to expand the United Nations Security Council.

 

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said this proves again that the G4 plan would not get wide support.

 

The G4 plan calls for 10 new members, made up of six permanent members without veto powers -- one each for the proposing nations and two for Africa -- and another four seats rotating on two-year terms.

 

The G4 failed to get support from the 53-nation AU. AU leaders called on the council to be enlarged to 26 seats, with six new permanent veto-wielding seats of which two will be reserved for Africa and five new non-permanent seats of which two would also be for Africa.

 

"The G4 plan is different from many countries' stances," Liu said, noting that the G4's forcible impulse of such plan has seriously affected the overall process of the UN reform and the preparation works of the summit to mark the 60th anniversary of the foundation of the United Nations in September.

 

Liu said that UN member states are generally dissatisfied with and opposed to the G4 plan.

 

The council is currently composed of five permanent members with veto powers --China, Britain, France, the US and Russia -- and 10 rotating elected members with two-year terms each.

 

(Xinhua News Agency August 8, 2005)