Italy Accuses Japan, Germany of `Blackmail' in UN Council Bid 
July 26 (Bloomberg) -- Italy's ambassador to the United Nations said Brazil, Germany, India and Japan were trying to ``blackmail'' UN member governments to support their bid for permanent seats on the Security Council in a scandal he said was worse than corruption of the Iraq oil-for-food program. 
``What we are fighting for is to free a member state from fear of losing financial assistance and foreign development aid just because it would refuse to comply to requests of political allegiance by someone that is more powerful,'' Ambassador Marcello Spatafora said in a speech to the General Assembly. 
Spatafora said Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, which call themselves the Group of Four, were bringing ``shame upon this house'' by creating an ``unhealthy and poisoned environment.'' He asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to create an independent committee to investigate his allegations. 
The G-4 is asking the UN's 191 nations to expand the council to 25 from 15 members, including six permanent seats. They have argued publicly that the permanent membership of the Security Council hasn't changed in 60 years, so it's time for the UN to acknowledge Japan's standing as the world's second-largest economic power and Germany's as the third-largest, and to recognize the growing economic clout of Brazil and India. 
Diplomats have told Bloomberg News about offers of increased aid in exchange for support mainly by Germany and Japan, which last year combined to give $16.3 billion to poor African, Asian and Latin American countries. 
`No Secret' 
``It is the stuff that perhaps is worth of some tabloid newspapers,'' Japanese Ambassador Kenzo Oshima said after Spatafora's speech. 
``I am not commenting on that,'' German Ambassador Gunter Pleuger told reporters as he left the General Assembly hall. 
Others, such as Pakistani envoy Munir Akram, said what diplomats described as attempts at coercion by Japan and Germany are ``no secret'' and that they have ``lot of information'' that could be turned over to Annan. 
``There are many cases,'' Mexican Ambassador Enrique Berruga said. ``It is arm twisting either by offers or subtraction, such as if you do not go along with my project, therefore I will not support your program for potable water.'' 
Two-thirds of the nations in the General Assembly must approve a Security Council expansion. Then, the Security Council must vote to amend the UN Charter. Any of the five permanent council members -- China, France, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. - - have the authority to veto the move. The council's other 10 members are elected to two-year terms without veto power. 
The G-4 proposal calls for the General Assembly to consider granting veto power to the new permanent members after 15 years. 
Competing Coalition 
Spatafora spoke on behalf of a coalition of nations, including Mexico, Canada and Pakistan, which introduced a competing resolution that doesn't propose new permanent members. The African Union also has introduced a measure, calling for expansion of the Security Council to 26 members, including six new permanent seats with veto power. 
While Berruga said the tactics were winning votes among Caribbean island and Central American nations, Spatafora said a reaction against the G-4 had begun to emerge. 
In his speech, Spatafora cited a country, which he wouldn't name, that was threatened with a cutoff in $460,000 of support for a project involving children that had been started. 
``This is much more serious than oil-for-food, because there you just pocket money, he said. ``Here it involves moral and ethical issues that are much more serious.'' 
Created by the Security Council as an exemption to sanctions imposed on Iraq after its 1990 invasion of Kuwait, the oil-for- food program allowed former dictator Saddam Hussein to sell $64 billion worth of oil from 1996 until the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. 
The Iraqi dictator skimmed more that $17 billion from the program through oil smuggling and alleged graft and impropriety by UN officials, U.S. congressional investigators said in November.