Japan will call for a special ministerial meeting to be held at the United Nations in New York in 2003 to seek a broad consensus on reform of the U.N.'s powerful Security Council, including possibly increasing its membership, government sources said Saturday.
The sources said Japan has already informally sounded out the United States and some developing countries, primarily in Africa, about the proposal.
Although the new Republican administration of President George W. Bush, who took office on Jan. 20, has not yet given a clear response to the Japanese proposal, some developing countries have expressed their basic support, the sources said.