UN: Italy's UN ambassador has said seekers of UN Security Council seats are engaging in blackmail and financial threats to win support for their resolution to enlarge the 15-member body.
In a speech to the UN general assembly, ambassador Marcello Spatafora accused Germany, Japan, India and Brazil - aspirants for permanent council seats known as the Group of Four, or G-4 - of "blackmailing some sector of the membership". He referred to G-4 as a unit without making it clear which country or countries he meant.
"Enough is enough," Mr Spatafora told the assembly. "I am referring to the G-4 resorting to financial leverage and to financial pressures in order to induce a government to align or not to align itself with a certain position."
Mr Spatafora spoke after Canada, backed by Pakistan and Colombia, introduced a resolution, the third plan to date, to expand the council by 10 new rotating seats and no permanent seats, as the G-4 wants. About a dozen countries are part of the group backing this proposal, called "Uniting for Consensus".
Italy has long campaigned against adding new permanent members to the council. A seat for Germany would leave Rome as the only big western European nation without one. Mr Spatafora gave an example of an unnamed G-4 donor country which allegedly threatened a government co- sponsoring his draft resolution that it would "put an end" to a $460,000 development project for children.
The G-4 needs Africa's support. Germany, Japan, Brazil and India have called on the general assembly to enlarge the Security Council to 25 from 15. This plan envisions six new permanent seats, including two for Africa, but new members would not have veto power.
Despite conciliatory comments at a London meeting of foreign ministers on Monday, north African countries Egypt and Algeria objected to suggested compromises by Nigeria, which holds the AU presidency.
Nigeria argued that a hard-line position would doom any plan to give seats to Africa. Egypt said Nigeria's compromises were a ploy for its own ambitions to get a seat.