The UN General Assembly on Tuesday remained deadlocked after total 47 rounds of voting in the contest to fill a non-permanent seat on the Security Council for the Latin American and Caribbean region.

On the fifth day of voting, the Assembly voted 6 rounds and reached total 47 times since Oct. 16 to choose a candidate to serve as the region's council member for a two-year term starting Jan. 1, 2007, and replacing Argentina.

In the latest round, when 122 votes would have been enough to secure victory, Guatemala obtained 101 votes, Venezuela received 78, Barbados, Ecuador and Jamaica received one respectively. However, none of them got the necessary two-thirds majority.

Guatemala has led in every round so far, with the exception of the sixth round on the first day of voting, when the two countries were tied.

Balloting is scheduled to resume Wednesday afternoon, and will continue until a state from the region achieves the required majority.

There is no limit to the number of rounds of voting and in 1979-80 there were a record 155 ballots before Mexico was chosen from the Latin American and Caribbean Group to serve a two-year term.

Belgium, Indonesia, Italy and South Africa were elected during the first round on Oct. 16 to serve as non-permanent members on the council. They will replace Denmark, Greece, Japan and Tanzania when their terms end on Dec. 31.

The council's five other non-permanent members, whose terms end on Dec. 31, 2007, are Congo, Ghana, Peru, Qatar and Slovakia.

The five permanent members, which are the only members with veto power when voting, are China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States.

(Xinhua News Agency November 1, 2006)