By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Reuters) - Many U.N. diplomats see new and growing momentum at the United Nations which they hope will end an impasse that has long blocked the launch of formal negotiations on expanding the U.N. Security 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 which has the power to make binding decisions about war and peace.
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Critics say the composition of the world's 15-nation watchdog of international peace and security is outdated and must adapt to a much-changed world in the 21st century.
Recent attempts to launch formal negotiations on expanding the council have failed. Last year the president of the U.N. General Assembly asked German Ambassador Thomas Matussek to lead a committee of U.N. member states to try again to break the deadlock on and help jump-start formal negotiations.
Through informal discussions with many of the 192 U.N. member states, Matussek told Reuters the committee on expanding the council -- called the "overarching process" -- was finalizing a draft text that would hopefully form the basis for official intergovernmental negotiations.
"We feel very encouraged at the first meetings of the overarching process because they have resulted in a drafting process and we hope to give a final product to the president of the U.N. General Assembly (soon)," he said.
The drafting process was done on an informal basis with only a handful of envoys working on the text. Among those involved were diplomats from Germany, Cyprus, Netherlands and Britain, diplomats said.
Japan's U.N. ambassador, Yukio Takasu, has not been part of Matussek's drafting process but has been following it closely since Tokyo hopes to get a seat. Like Matussek, he thinks many U.N. member states are ready to discuss expanding the council.
"We're now in the process of pre-negotiations," Takasu told Reuters. "There is a new momentum now. But in order to start serious negotiations, we really need something on paper. And there's no need for two or three papers. We need one paper."
NO GUARANTEE OF SUCCESS
Interviews with nearly two dozen diplomats from Western countries, Asia and Africa confirmed that Takasu's view that the time is ripe for expanding the council is widely held.
One European diplomat said the draft text was ready and would go to ambassadors involved in the "overarching process" for discussion on March 18. Once they approve it, it would go to the president of the General Assembly, Ambassador Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia, who would then start formal negotiations.
But diplomats said that even if negotiations on expanding the council get under way, there is no guarantee they will succeed. There are deep divides separating some U.N. members on this issue -- such as Italy's opposition to a permanent German seat or Pakistan's similar position on India.
The council currently has five permanent veto-wielding members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, considered the victors of World War Two. Ten nonpermanent members are elected for two-year terms according to regions.
The size of the council has only increased once since the United Nations was created in 1945 -- in 1965, when the number of elected members rose from six to 10.
Apart from Germany and India, Japan is also interested in getting a permanent seat on an expanded council. It is also the only country that has the explicit backing of the United States, though one often-discussed option would also give Brazil and an African country permanent seats.
Formal negotiations would have to resolve the issue of veto powers. Other possible options expected to be included in the draft text on expansion possibilities are adding nonpermanent seats or possibly creating some semi-permanent seats.
If negotiations succeed and the General Assembly agrees this year to expand the council, it would take at least two or three years for member states to ratify the plan. That means it an expanded council could not become a reality before 2011. (Editing by David Wiessler)
