Israel should be allowed a seat on the United Nations Security Council, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said today.
"The time has come to normalise the status of Israel here in the United Nations," Mr Shalom told reporters after talks with Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
"I told him that one way forward to normalise our status here is by asking to be a member of the Security Council."
Israel was going to launch a campaign "even if it is not going to happen tomorrow," he said. The prestigious 15-nation council rules on war and peace, sanctions and peacekeeping operations.
While five of its members - the United States, China, Russia, Britain and France - have permanent seats, 10 others are elected by the UN membership for two-year terms.
Nominations for those seats typically are put forward by the five UN regional groupings. But Israel's status at the United Nations is unique in that opposition from Islamic nations long prevented it from joining the Asian Group, which corresponds to its geographical region.
In 2000, Israel was invited to join the "Western European and Others Group," which includes Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand in addition to the countries of Western Europe.
But it was allowed to do so on condition it not immediately seek a Security Council seat. That restriction, however, is no longer in force, Israeli spokeswoman Anat Friedman said.
Israel's relations with the United Nations have been stormy since the 1967 Middle East war, during which Israel captured Gaza and the West Bank, and the 191-nation General Assembly annually adopts dozens of resolutions criticising it.
But relations have taken a sharp turn for the better recently. Mr Annan has been outspoken against anti-Semitism, terrorism and suicide bombers and put his weight behind a special General Assembly session in January commemorating the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi concentration camps.
In addition, Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman is in line to be elected, for the first time, one of the assembly's 21 vice presidents when the new assembly session starts in September, Shalom said.
"It is a symbolic move but for us it is a very important move forward," he said.