Japan, Germany, India and Brazil formally presented a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly Secretariat on Wednesday, calling for an increase of six permanent members in the Security Council.

The four countries, also known as G-4, are aspirants for permanent seats in an enlarged Security Council.

"The G-4 intends to request that debate begin on this framework resolution in the UN General Assembly as early as next week," the Japanese mission to the United Nations said in a statement.

"Japan intends to direct its efforts toward adoption of the draft resolution during the month of July," it said.

During the past several months, the G-4 has campaigned heavily for support for its proposal to enlarge the council.

The draft is co-sponsored by 23 countries, namely, France, Belgium, Denmark, Poland, Afghanistan, Fiji, Bhutan, Greece, Ukraine, Kiribati, Palau, the Czech Republic, Uruguay, Portugal, Georgia, Honduras, Iceland, Haiti, Nauru, the Maldives, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands and Latvia.

Compared with its previous version, the framework draft remains largely unchanged. It proposes increasing the number of Security Council members from the current 15 to 25 by adding six new permanent members and four new non-permanent members. The four also suggest a 15-year freeze on veto power for new permanent members.

A noticeable change in the draft is the timetable for the election of the six new permanent members. The draft says the General Assembly shall elect through a secret ballot the new permanent members "in any case" no later than 12 weeks after the adoption of the draft.

The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members with veto power -- China, the United States, Britain, France and Russia -- and 10 elected members with a two-year term.

The G-4's proposal, which will need to receive a "yes" vote from two-thirds of members in the 191-nation assembly, has been strongly opposed by Italy, Pakistan, Mexico, Canada, Algeria and many other countries, which favor increasing the non-permanent council seats from 10 to 20.

The opponents of the G-4 proposal also call for broad consensus through consultations on the council reform to avoid a rift among UN members.

(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2005)