Brazil's Lula to Visit Japan Amid Bid for Security Council Seat

[Judi Lynn]

Brazil's Lula to Visit Japan Amid Bid for Security Council Seat
May 17 (Bloomberg) -- Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will visit Japan on May 26 for talks with Japan's Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi as the two seek seats on an expanded United Nations' Security Council, Japan's foreign ministry said.

Japan allied itself with Brazil, Germany and India in a bid to win each country a permanent seat on the Security Council, the UN's most powerful committee. The group, which calls itself the G4, yesterday at the UN in New York proposed expanding the 15- member council to 25 seats.

Japan and Germany, named as enemy states by the UN after their defeat in World War II, say they deserve permanent seats on the council because they are now the world's second and third- biggest economies. India and Brazil, the most populous nation in South America, say their size qualifies them for membership. India is the world's second-most populous country.
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