Conference on proposals for UN Security Council seat

African foreign ministers meeting in Swaziland on Monday are to decide on the African Union's (AU) proposals for a permanent UN Security Council seat. "We have been entrusted by our respective nations with the task to effectively and meaningfully take Africa's role in the regeneration of the United Nations forward," said Swazi Prime Minister Themba Dlamini, welcoming delegates. At the two-day African Union Commission Meeting on the United Nations Security Council Proposals, a Committee of 15, comprised of foreign ministers from Algeria, Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Ghana, Libya, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zimbabwe, will also consider the AU's recommendations for achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals. On Security Council reform, AU chairman Alpha Oumar Konare said, "The possibilities to consider include expansion of both the permanent and non-permanent memberships to the Council. Two African seats will be established: an African seat might be allocated to a single country permanently, or the seat could be contested in elections held every four years." The main contenders for a permanent seat are South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt. "This is an opportunity for us to forsake whatever differences may exist, and utilize this moment to strive for an inclusive and sustainable solution in the best interest of the African continent and her people," said Dlamini. Recommendations from the conference will be endorsed by the AU's Executive Council of Foreign Ministers next month, and presented as the pan-African organisation's stand on Security Council reform to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Annan will announce the status of Africa's Security Council seat next month as part of overall UN structural reform.