Islamic states want permanent seat on UN Security Council 
Tue Jun 28,11:00 AM ET 
Foreign ministers of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) opened a meeting with a call for a Muslim permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu urged a greater role for Muslim countries in world affairs and demanded a permanent representation for the Islamic world on the UN Security Council.
The Islamic world, which represents one fifth of total mankind, cannot remain excluded from the activities of the Security Council which assumes a fundamental role in keeping security and peace in the world, he said Tuesday.
Ihsanoglu announced on Monday that ministers would discuss proposals for the representation of the 57-member Islamic body on the Security Council during their three-day conference in the Yemeni capital.
Calls for increasing the number of permanent members have been resonating since Germany, Japan, India and Brazil announced their wish to have veto-wielding positions like the current big five of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States.
Ihsanoglu told the conference that his ambitious plans also provided for the introduction of real reform in the Islamic bloc's internal affiars.
I want to push for real reform in the organisation, not just a superficial one ... to enhance capabilities and improve performance, he said at the opening which was held amid tight security measures and away from the press.
Ihsanoglu became head of the OIC at the start of the year after his election to the top job in June 2004, becoming the first secretary general in the organization's 36-year history to be chosen through secret ballot.
The Turkish secretary general also proposed finding a new name for the organisation that would reflect its reality.
OIC was given its current name when it was first established at a meeting of Islamic leaders convened in Morocco following an attempt by Jewish hardliners to burn down Islam's third holiest site -- Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque -- which is also revered in Judaism.
The Red Sea city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia hosts the headquarters of the OIC, pending the liberation of Jerusalem, which would be the permanent headquarters, according to the OIC website.
The OIC was entrusted in absolute priority, with liberating Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa from Zionist occupation, it added.
But Ihsanoglu wanted to revisit the OIC's convention and rewrite it in a way that would serve the interests of the (Islamic) nation.
He also wanted to reform the OIC in order to guarantee that its political decisions do not remain wishes.
The Islamic world is in need of a renaissance ... Development and reform are the real guarantees for the continuity of our nation, and to bridge the gap between us and the advanced world, he said.
Proposed reforms also include Islamic solidarity, especially in facing natural disasters after last December's tsunami disaster exposed the lack of an OIC mechanism to cope with such catastrophes.
On December 26, the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years struck off Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh, unleashing tsunamis which killed 220,000 people in nations around the Indian Ocean, several of them Muslim.