Germany, Japan, India and Brazil, the four main competitors for new permanent seats on an expanded Security Council, proposed on Thursday putting the issue of enlarging the powerful UN organ to a vote in the 191-nation General Assembly.

The four countries put forward the proposal in a joint statement, which was read out by German Ambassador to the UN Gunter Pleuger at a rally at the Millennium Hotel across the UN headquarters in New York.

Citing UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's report on UN reforms, the statement said a failure to reach consensus should not become an excuse for postponing Security Council reforms.

"It should also be recalled that the decision to expand the non-permanent category (of seats on the Security Council) in 1963 was made by a vote," the statement added.

It reiterated that Germany, Japan, India and Brazil viewed themselves as "legitimate candidates" for permanent membership in an expanded Security Council.

The four countries, which formed an alliance in September 2004 to back each other's bid for a new council permanent seat, also proposed a three-step procedure for completing the council's enlargement.

Under the proposal, the General Assembly would adopt a framework resolution by summer and then select new permanent members before passing another resolution to amend the United Nations Charter.

A draft framework resolution attached to the statement called for increasing six new permanent Security Council members and three or four new non-permanent members.

In a sign of a softening stance on the veto issue, the four countries said in the draft that the question of the veto "should not be a hindrance to achieving Security Council reform."

The Security Council, the only UN organ whose decisions are legally binding on world governments, is currently composed of five veto-holding permanent members -- China, Russia, Britain, the United States and France -- and 10 elected two-year-term members.

Pakistan, Italy and other countries, which are strongly opposed to the increase of permanent seats on the council, have already scheduled a rival rally on April 12.

(Xinhua News Agency April 1, 2005)