S Africa's Mbeki warns UN of "defiance"

JOHANNESBURG, Sep 15 (Reuters) The United Nations could face ''defiance'' from member states if it does not reform to give broader representation to the world's people, South African President Thabo Mbeki said today.

Mbeki told the South African Broadcasting Corp the five permanent members of the UN Security Council were abusing their power and failing to enact reforms that would respect international will.

''I'm quite certain at some point it would generate, in a sense, a kind of spirit of defiance,'' Mbeki said, speaking in Havana where he was at a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

''We are not represented properly in these institutions. Why do they think they have the capacity to take decisions for all of us?'' South Africa is among the countries campaigning for changes to the UN system and an expansion of the Security Council, which currently gives permanent seats and veto power to the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China.

Debate over the reforms has largely pitted developing nations, which represent the majority of the body's members, against rich western countries, which pay most of the UN's bills.

The African Union wants the council to be enlarged to 26 seats, including six new permanent seats with veto rights, two of which would go to Africa.

African issues ranging from the crisis in Darfur to the political stand-off in Ivory Coast currently take up much of the Security Council's time.

But efforts to agree on a broader reform plan in the 191-member General Assembly have foundered, with no proposal seen likely to garner the necessary two-thirds majority to pass.

Mbeki, who is expected to be among the leaders who address the UN General Assembly in New York this month, said the defiant spirit would grow if reform efforts at the United Nations remain bogged down.

''I'm quite sure that if the matter isn't addressed, indeed you will begin to get a response like that,'' he said.

REUTERS AB BST1616