Luciana Vasconcelos
Reporter Agência Brasil

Nova York (EUA) - Brazil's minister of Foreign Relations, Celso Amorim, says he has felt a "reform impulse" in the air during conversations with other diplomats at the UN with regard to Security Council changes.

Amorim has been busy. He has met with both the outgoing president of the General Assembly, Jean Ping, and the new one, Jean Eliasson. He participated in a meeting of the G-4 with the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan.

Amorim is also aware that reforming an organization with 190 members is not an easy task. "This is not something simple, but there is a feeling that it is the right thing. It is just right to make the Security Council more balanced in its representativity," he declared.

The G-4 proposal for Security Council reform calls for expanding the total number of members from 15 to 25, and the number of permanent members from 5 to 11 (adding representatives from the Americas (1), Europe (1), Asia (2) and Africa (2). The members of the G-4 would become permanent members, but without veto power.

The G-4 proposal should go to a vote in the General Assembly before the end of July. To be approved it needs two-thirds of the votes (128) [in the General Assembly each country has one vote and there are no vetoes].

Translator: Allen Bennett