UNITED NATIONS, Aug 5: The G-4 — Japan, Germany, India, and Brazil — suffered a major setback in their quest to secure permanent seats in the UN Security Council on Thursday as the 53-nation African Union refused to sign on their proposal to the expand the UN Security Council. Diplomats here said that a vote on the resolution could be delayed until after the September summit, but the envoys of the G-4 maintained that they would continue to pursue the African vote. No new date was stipulated for a vote on the resolution.

Without the support from the African Union the G-4 resolution cannot secure two-thirds majority needed to adopt the framework resolution in the 191 member UN General Assembly.

“The outcome was not the one we expected, but we would like to continue to talk with the African as well as with other countries”, Kenzo Oshima, Japan’s ambassador to the UN, told reporters.

German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder insisted on Friday that Berlin would pursue its bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council despite new setbacks, but acknowledged it might need more time.

India also regretted the African Union’s rejection of calls from New Delhi and three other United Nations Security Council aspirants for a joint proposal for reforming the world body.

“It is a matter of regret that the extraordinary African Union summit ... was unable to endorse an AU/G-4 draft framework Resolution”, an Indian foreign ministry statement said.

On Thursday evening the G-4 ambassadors met with the General Assembly President Jean Ping to discuss the outcome of the African summit as did members of an opposing group called ‘Uniting for Consensus’.

The UFC is against increasing the permanent members of the Security Council and is only calling for enlarging the council by adding non-permanent seats. Although the G-4 still hopes to bring the matter to a vote before the General Assembly sometime between August 22 and Sept 14, other groups, such as the UFC and permanent members including the United States and China, have spoken out against setting “artificial timelines.”

“We should not be dictated by artificial guidelines and datelines and try to find a solution that accommodates the interests of all concerned”, said Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Munir Akram.

In response to the latest development in Africa, Mr Ping acknowledged that it confirmed that there were three resolutions on the table. Besides the G-4 resolution, there were also the UFC and the AU resolutions.

Mr Ping, who will be out of New York until August 22, hopes he can work on bringing all the groups together for discussions.

“If it is agreed by all the parties, put them together as we did in the past”, he said. “It doesn’t mean that we are going to ask them to have a common position”.