The United Nations members States have endorsed India's viewpoint that the General Assembly should begin the inter-governmental negotiations on expansion of the Security Council, with consensus emerging in favour of starting parleys by February next year.

Pakistan and its allies had favoured the open-ended working group (OEWG) continuing negotiations until consensus is reached. But India had advocated that the issue be sorted out at inter-governmental negotiations as OEWG had failed to reach any agreement after more than a decade of discussions.

After intense discussion, the OEWG agreed to recommend that the UN General Assembly begin informal negotiations on expanding membership of the Council no later than February 28 next.

Meanwhile, the OEWG would continue to hold discussions and prepare report for the Assembly, which could form the basis for future negotiations.

During the decade-long discussions in OEWG, the member States had been merely repeating their known positions and no progress in substance has been made.

The Group of four comprising India, Japan [Images], Germany [Images] and Brazil [Images], strong contenders for permanent membership of the Council, proposed that the inter-governmental negotiations should commence on the specific proposals made by member States if any progress had to be made.

The G-4 want expansion in both permanent and non permanent categories while the 'United for Consensus' (UFC) led by Pakistan and Italy [Images] is advocating expansion only in the non-permanent category, arguing they do not want to create more centres of power.

The G-4, however, contends that expansion in permanent category is essential if the current decision-making structure of the Council, dominated by five permanent members, has to be changed. The five permanent members are the US, Russia [Images], Britain, France [Images] and China.

The G-4 proposal envisages addition of six permanent and four non-permanent members, taking the total strength to 25 but UFC has proposed addition of 10 non-permanent members.

Under the G-4 proposal two permanent seats would be allotted each to Asia and Africa, one each to Latin America and Europe.

While all members agree that the Council should be expanded to reflect the current realities, a majority wants the expansion to take place in both categories and a minority subscribes to the UFC viewpoint.

The expansion would necessitate amendment of the Charter, which requires that the resolution on expansion gets two-thirds majority in the 192-member General Assembly and two-third member States, including five permanent members, ratify the decision following their own legislative proposals.

The consensus decision taken by OEWG on Monday night was that inter-governmental negotiations begin not later than February 28 in an informal plenary of the General Assembly based on 'proposals made, in good faith, with mutual respect and in an open, inclusive and transparent manner'.