US Seeks Fresh Start on Security Council Reform 
By Reuters
November 10, 2005
The New York Times
Original Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-un-council-reform.html

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States called on Thursday for a fresh start to plans to expand the 15-member U.N. Security Council and reaffirmed its support for giving a permanent seat to Japan in the future.
U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told the U.N. General Assembly that Washington opposed reviving any of the reform plans under debate earlier this year, including the leading proposal, which would have given new permanent seats to Germany, India and Brazil as well as Japan. It never came to a vote.
``In these past attempts, we bit off more than we could chew,'' he said.
Bolton set out specific U.S. criteria for any future expansion and warned against any plan that harmed the effectiveness of the council, which decides on critical questions like which countries should get sanctions and where to send peacekeepers.
``In our view, qualified nations should meet criteria in the following areas: size of economy and population; military capacity; contributions to peacekeeping operations, commitment to democracy and human rights; financial contributions to the United Nations; nonproliferation and counterterrorism records, and equitable geographic balance,'' Bolton said.
The criteria would appear to buoy the candidacies of Japan and India, who have been campaigning hard for permanent seats.
Although there has long been talk about reforming the Security Council and giving more countries a chance to participate, agreement on how to achieve it has been elusive.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has pushed hard for reform by the end of the year, arguing the council still reflects the balance of power at the end of World War Two, with the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France the sole permanent members with veto power. 
'MORE BROADLY REPRESENTATIVE'
At September's global summit, a 35-page document on U.N. reforms endorsed by world leaders had only one sentence on the Security Council, referring to its need to become ``more broadly representative, more efficient and transparent.''
The council currently has 10 nonpermanent seats that rotate for two-year terms, in addition to the five permanent members.
The United States has said in the past it would support adding five or six additional seats to the council including perhaps two more permanent members.
To begin council expansion, the 191-member General Assembly would have to approve a framework by a two-thirds vote. Then would come votes on individual candidates, followed by a U.N. Charter change requiring approval by national legislatures.
Switzerland, joined by Liechtenstein, Costa Rica, Jordan and Singapore, proposed a council enlargement plan that would increase its transparency and encourage nonmember states to take part where they have a strong interest or expertise.
The proposal would ask permanent members using their veto power to explain why they had done so, and would bar the use of a veto in cases of genocide, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law.