UNITED NATIONS, Dec 1: Japan is expected to launch a major diplomatic offensive in conjunction with Germany, India and Brazil to become permanent members of the UN Security Council amid proposals to expand the membership of the body, diplomats said here on Wednesday.

Tokyo will urge the three countries to agree with its position of supporting a UN panel's proposal for increasing the number of permanent Security Council members from the current five to 11 and demanding that new permanent members also be given veto rights, the sources said.

However, the high level panel in its report strongly recommended that none of the new members should be given veto powers, now or in the future, that rest with the permanent five members-China, Britain, Russia, UK and the United States.

All four countries have confirmed their intentions to back each other in aiming to become permanent members, and Japan wants to start discussing ways to work together shortly, the sources said.

Japan hopes the Group of Four will agree to divide among themselves the work of urging other UN member states to support their position, so that it will be reflected as much as possible in UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's recommendations for UN reforms expected to be issued in next March.

Opposing the so called G-4 countries will be group of countries led by Italy, Argentina and Pakistan who are against any proposal to increase the permanent members of the council.

Instead they will call for expansion in the non-permanent slot. Pakistan and like-minded countries want the process of discussions by the 191 members of the United Nations to be transparent, participatory and inclusive.

"We want the reforms package to be adopted by a consensus;" said Pakistan's Deputy Ambassador Masood Khalid, adding "Pakistan is involved in discussions with like minded nations to evolve one position on this vital issue."

Mr Annan is likely to take into account the report released Tuesday in New York by the High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change which proposes two options.

One option is to expand the number of permanent members by six and non-permanent seats by three, while the other is to keep the permanent members at five, add one non-permanent seat and create a new category of eight seats with members serving out renewable four-year terms.

In Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Japan will carry out "active diplomatic activities" to achieve its goal. Japan is "determined to further fulfil its responsibilities by becoming a permanent SC member," Machimura said.