Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori plans to call for an increase in the number of both permanent and nonpermanent members of the U.N. Security Council in a brief speech he will deliver Sept. 7 at the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York, government sources said Sunday.
While Japan has long lobbied to secure a permanent seat on the council, this time Mori is unlikely to directly refer to Japan's bid but instead touch on various proposals on reforming the body, which currently has five permanent members and 10 nonpermanent members, the sources said.
Mori is also expected to pledge an additional $100 million to a Japan-initiated "human security" fund at the United Nations, the sources said.
Japan has so far contributed 3 billion yen (about $28 million) to the fund, set up to fight poverty, drugs, terrorism and environmental destruction.
Mori also plans to urge a review of financial contributions to the U.N., the sources said. He will mention that Japan's payment of 20 percent of the U.N.'s running costs exceeds the combined shares of the four permanent U.N. Security Council members excluding the United States -- Britain, China, France and Russia, they said.
He will also praise the agreement at a May meeting in New York to review the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, in which all five declared nuclear powers pledged an "unequivocal undertaking" to eliminate their nuclear arsenals, the sources said.
Mori will announce Japan's intention to submit a resolution calling for the accord's implementation to the U.N. General Assembly in October, they said.
Leaders from most of the 188 U.N. member countries are expected to take part in the three-day summit beginning Sept. 6 to discuss the world body's role in the next century. Each is scheduled to deliver a five-minute speech.