Italy's UN ambassador accused Brazil, Germany, India and Japan on Tuesday of using aid money to try to buy seats on the UN Security Council and demanded an investigation of the "improper and unethical behavior."

Marcello Spatafora warned that using development aid to win support from poor countries was tantamount to blackmail. He said it could spark a scandal that would be "much more serious and destabilizing" than the controversy surrounding the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.

"Here it is not a question of pocketing money," he said. "It is a question of ethics and moral values."

Spatafora called on General Assembly President Jean Ping and Secretary-General Kofi Annan to set up an investigation and not "to sweep the dust under the carpet" and accept "a stained reform" of the UN's most powerful body.

"I think this is completely groundless," said Kazuo Sunaga, the head of economic affairs in Japan's UN Mission, saying Japan's development assistance was based on the plans and strategy of the developing countries. Calls to the Germany, Brazilian and Indian missions were not immediately returned.

The Italian envoy unleashed his attack in a speech to the General Assembly in support of a rival plan to expand the UN Security Council, an indication of the deep divisions and intense debate over council reform.

After 10 years of seemingly endless debate, Secretary-General Kofi Annan told UN member states in March that he wanted a decision on Security Council expansion before a summit of world leaders in September.

There is widespread support for enlarging the current 15-member council to reflect the world today rather than global power after World War II when the United Nations was formed. But all previous attempts have failed because of national and regional rivalries, and with time running short, and three rival draft resolutions now on the table, the rhetoric and allegations have escalated.

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan, the so-called Group of Four, want to expand the council to 25 members, adding four non-permanent seats and six permanent seats which they hope would go to them and two African nations. The African Union has proposed expanding the council to 26 members,  adding six permanent seats with veto power and five non-permanent seats. A third group, Uniting for Consensus, which Italy backs, wants to add 10 non-permanent seats.

Spatafora claimed that all UN members know that the Group of Four is "resorting to financial leverage and to financial pressures in order to induce a government to align, or not to align, itself with a certain position, or to co-sponsor or vote in favor of a certain draft."

He said that one of the four countries had decided to cancel a US$460,000 project to help children and wouldn't start another project it had agreed to.

He said this was "the latest example, in a long row."

"Is it not, this kind of improper and unethical behavior, a shame?" Spatafora said. "It is a shame. We cannot further tolerate."

"What is at stake ... is the credibility of the organization and of its process of reform," he said.

(Chinadaily.com.cn via agencies July 27, 2005)