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Putin Rejects Recommendations To Revamp UN

4 December 2004 -- Russian President Vladimir Putin today dismissed a key recommendation by a United Nations panel on expanding the UN Security Council.

Putin, who is on an official visit to India, told reporters that any reform of the world body would be one-sided if new members did not have veto power.

He said that if there were no veto for the new members, all vetoes would have to go.

A high-level UN panel recently presented two options for expansion of the Security Council. One would add six new permanent members. The other would create a new tier of eight semi-permanent members, with two each from Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas.

Panel members agreed that only the five current permanent members --the United States, Russia, China, Britain, and France -- should have veto power.

(Reuters/AP)

Copyright (c) 2004. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org