"I don't share the idea that the Security Council had lost legitimacy. It lost efficiency with respect to this particular issue," he said in the interview with the newspaper.

When reminded of the fact that a similar situation had occurred in Kosovo, he said: "The Kosovo crisis was, in effect, the first conflict in which the Security Council, threatened by the use of the veto power, could not act, but that would not mean it is illegitimate."

"I believe it is an organization that has difficulties to act and what we have to do is not rule it out as illegitimate, but to see how to strengthen it, which means that we have to assess what really is happening," he added.

He also mentioned the communiqui formerly issued by his ministry, which criticized the Security Council for failing to reach a peaceful solution to the Iraq crisis.

"We don't support an armed action without the explicit authorization of the Security Council," the foreign minister said.

To the question of whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, Wagner said: "This has not been determined." "We consider that the use of force to disarm Iraq should have required a new resolution," he noted.

The foreign minister was also questioned on why the Rio Group has not reached an agreement to issue a joint communiqui on the Iraq war.

"We have attempted to coordinate the drafting of a statement on two occasions, but this has not been possible because work is done on the basis of a consensus," he added.

Latin American countries are divided over the Iraq war, with majority of them against it.

The 19-member Rio Group was launched in December 1986 as Latin America's largest political coordination group to represent the region in important affairs or negotiations with other blocs in the world.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2003)