Panama named for UN seat by Venezuela, Guatemala

UNITED NATIONS, Nov 2: Breaking a deadlock, Guatemala and Venezuela chose Panama as a consensus candidate and withdrew from the race for a seat on the UN Security Council, Ecuador's UN ambassador said.

''They have agreed that Panama will be the country that will replace them as a candidate for the Security Council,'' said Ecuador's Diego Cordovez yesterday, who hosted talks between the foreign ministers of Guatemala and Venezuela.

The 35-member Latin American and Caribbean group must still approve the choice after which the U.N. General Assembly has to vote. But the decision by Foreign Ministers Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala and Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela is expected to stand.

Guatemala, backed by the United States, led Venezuela by about 25 votes in all but one of the 47 rounds of balloting.

The voting began on October 16 and ran for five days. But Guatemala fell short of a required two-thirds majority in the 192-member UN General Assembly to secure the seat.

The 47th round was conducted on Tuesday and a new vote is scheduled in the assembly next Tuesday.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called the contest a campaign against US dominance over developing nations.

Although Venezuela is a major oil supplier to the United States, ties have deteriorated, particularly since Chavez described Washington as his No 1 enemy and called President George W Bush ''the devil'' in a General Assembly speech in September. Diplomats said that cost him votes.

''Panama appreciates the consideration from both the Venezuelan and Guatemala governments,'' its U.N. ambassador, Ricardo Alberto Arias told Reuters.

Panama, diplomats said, was not mentioned until late in the day of talks between Guatemala and Venezuela. Other potential candidates included Barbados, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.

Maduro told reporters that ''Venezuela will continue to try for the democratization of the United Nations.'' He said it was necessary to have ''a system that serves peace, that worked for the entire world and not one power,'' a reference to the United States.

Guatemala's Rosenthal, who had been campaigning for the seat for four years, called US support ''a double-edged sword.'' ''In some ways it probably damaged our campaign, in others it helped,'' Rosenthal told reporters.

But Rosenthal aid Panama was a nation that united Central America and South America.

''We are concerned about the idea of divisions between the north and the south of Latin America and would like to put the idea to rest by seeking a country that is well received at both ends of our continent,'' Rosenthal said.

The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China hold permanent seats on the Security Council, the most powerful UN body.

Ten other nations sit on the council for two-year terms, five elected each year.

Guatemala and Venezuela were vying for the Latin American seat that Argentina will vacate on December 31. Peru stays on the council until the end of 2007 along with the Congo Republic, Ghana, Qatar and Slovakia.

In other regions, South Africa, Indonesia, Italy and Belgium received the necessary votes on October 16 to win two-year terms in the council. They replace Tanzania, Japan, Denmark and Greece.

REUTERS