May 11, 2005	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 2, 1426

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UNITED NATIONS, May 10: In a bid to reach a compromise on United Nations Security Council reforms, the Uniting For Consensus group led by Pakistan and the Group of Four states seeking permanent UNSC membership — Japan, Germany, India and Brazil – have met for an hour behind closed doors in what was described as a ‘good meeting’.

The meeting was convened by UN General Assembly President Jean Ping after it became clear that the sharp differences between the groups over the Security Council’s expansion were undermining the UN reforms process.

“It was a good beginning,” said Pakistan’s Ambassador Munir Akram following the meeting. “We all agreed that the reforms process was essential and that it should be democratic and transparent and it should reflect today’s global realities.”

“The general sentiment was to achieve a broadest possible agreement on this issue and a number of common points were identified,” said Mr Akram.

The two groups agreed to meet again “soon” and make efforts to reach a compromise on the issue of Security Council expansion.

The Uniting for Consensus group, which includes China, opposes enlargement of the council in the permanent category.

Like-minded nations in the so-called ‘Coffee Club’ have proposed an addition of 10 non-permanent members to the 15-nation council instead of nine envisaged in UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s two models, one of which includes permanent members and the other longer-term seats. The ambassadors to the UN of the G-4 and Pakistan, South Korea, Algeria, Mexico and Spain from the Uniting for Consensus group attended the meeting.

However, one of the G-4 envoys has reportedly said that the differences were on fundamentals and there seemed to be no meeting ground.