UN explores compromise on Security Council race

United Nations, Oct 18: Venezuela and Guatemala failed repeatedly to garner enough votes to win a two-year seat on the UN Security Council, prompting a 24-hour break to explore how to resolve the impasse.

Brazil's UN ambassador, Ronaldo Sardenberg, yesterday said Latin American and Caribbean nations had agreed to hold off voting until Thursday and meet informally to assess the situation.

Venezuela and Guatemala agreed but neither country withdrew.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez described the protracted voting as a showdown between his country and the United States.

''I say to them and the whole world, Venezuela will keep fighting this battle,'' Chavez said during a meeting with a Chinese delegation in Caracas.

In 22 rounds of voting on Monday and yesterday for a Latin American seat next year, Guatemala won all but one round which ended in a tie. But neither country received the two-thirds vote needed in the 192-member General Assembly.

Chavez has tried to form an alliance in Asia, Africa and West Asia to challenge Washington's interests. Failure to get into the UN Security Council would represent a setback for his ambitions for a bigger international profile.

Small countries who have never had a Security Council seat have the right to participate in the council's work, Guatemala's visiting foreign minister, Gert Rosenthal, told reporters.

''But we also are concerned about the integrity of the General Assembly,'' he said. ''We are not going to fight this for weeks and weeks. We want to see how it evolves over the next few days'' before making a decision on whether to drop out.

Earlier, Venezuela said it would only give up its quest for a Security Council seat if President George W. Bush and his UN ambassador, John Bolton, stopped their ''extortion'' campaign on behalf of rival Guatemala.

''Venezuela is not stepping down,'' said its UN Ambassador Francisco Javier Arias Cardenas.

Bolton responded: ''I know arm twisting when I see it. And it is not happening on the part of the United States.'' Both Bolton and Rosenthal said it was normal in this situation that the losing country withdraw from the race.

''You can draw one conclusion: Venezuela is not going to win. So the question then is whether the decision to stay in is going to take us to record territory,'' Bolton said.

In 1979, a contest between Colombia and Cuba went to 155 rounds. In the end, Mexico emerged as the compromise candidate.

New Candidate?

Chile for one was pushing for a new candidate. ''Chile continues to think that it is necessary to have a consensus candidate, a candidate of unity,'' said its UN ambassador, Heraldo Munoz. Other diplomats were urging Latin American states to look as a group for a compromise as a way out of the impasse.

''They'd better meet. Otherwise, we'll never get there,'' Denmark's UN ambassador, Ellen Margrethe Loj, told Reuters.

The Security Council has 15 seats: five permanent members with veto power -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and 10 nations serving for two-year terms, five of them elected each year.

In other regions, South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium received the necessary votes on Monday to win two-year terms in the council beginning on January 1. They replace Tanzania, Japan, Denmark and Greece.

Next year will mark the first time South Africa will have a seat on the council, whose decisions on peace and security are mandatory for all UN members.

Venezuela and Guatemala are vying for the Latin American seat being vacated by Argentina while Peru stays on the Security Council until the end of 2007, along with the Congo Republic, Ghana, Qatar and Slovakia.

Reuters

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