Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi has renewed Tokyo's call for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council.
Mr. Koizumi, fresh from a landslide election win, addressed world leaders at the United Nations summit in New York on Thursday. He said Security Council reform is a "just cause" for the international community. He stressed Japan's record of pacifism since the end of World War II.
A proposal by the so-called Group of Four nations - Brazil, India, Germany and Japan - calls for increasing the Security Council to 25 with six new permanent members.
But the proposal is opposed by China and the United States and has failed to gain support among other council members.
Some information for this report provided by AP and Reuters.