Annan tackles remaking the UN

As Annan made clear Tuesday, his chief concern now is the Security Council: "If you want the council's decisions to command greater respect, particularly in the developing world," Annan said, "you need to address the issue of its composition with greater urgency."

At present the council is made up of five permanent members - the US, Britain, France, Russia, and China - and 10 rotating members elected on a regional basis for two-year terms. Since any permanent member can veto a proposed resolution, the council is effectively controlled by the five nations that won World War II.

All member states agree that the council as now constituted is an anachronism. They also agree that its permanent membership must be enlarged and something - though no one knows quite what - should be done about the veto power of the five permanent members. Germany and Japan, as two of the world's most powerful economies and leading contributors to the UN budget, have been candidates for council membership for years; Brazil and India are frequently mentioned as candidates among developing nations.

But as yet, there is no consensus how the Security Council should be expanded. And why, many senior UN officials ask, should permanent members dilute their own power?

Many here also view the Iraq issue not as an opportunity to push reforms forward, but as a distraction that will delay them. The immediate task, they say, is avoiding the fractious disagreements that prompted the US to invade Iraq without the council's support.

"Nobody wants to see another big split in the council," the career official said. "The reforms we're talking about involve the UN Charter and require everyone to come together on them. They're going to have to wait for now."

Annan clearly disagrees. He announced plans to name a "panel of eminent personalities" to review the UN's major organs and recommend reforms. Annan will then report on the panel's findings at next year's General Assembly. In effect, he has set a one-year timetable for the assembly to begin debating specific measures to reshape the organization.

It is a strategy he has used before. "By bringing in experts he'll get a fresh way of saying 'Here's what might be done.' It gives members something to react to," a senior official explained. "He did this with his first round of reforms, and by and large he got the agenda adopted."

More broadly, officials say, the question of the UN's effectiveness has reached a kind of do-or-die moment and can no longer be ignored - even among those whose influence may be diminished as the organization evolves.

"Being a permanent member of the council is only worth something if the council itself is relevant," says Shashi Tharoor, a prominent aide to the secretary-general. "And there's increasing concern that it may not continue to be without serious reform."

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