MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Kofi Annan lobbies for UN reforms.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said in Chile that there can be no further delays with reforms and the functioning process of the UN Security Council.

Addressing a forum on the "International Context and UN Renovation" in Santiago, Mr. Annan pointed out that the Security Council has been in the agenda review for too long, "and I detect a general feeling that we can't keep delaying reforms".

"This is the right moment to seriously examine our inter-government institutions", added Mr. Annan who is touring several South American countries.

However the UN Secretary General was quick to underline that reforms must not be seen as an attempt to weaken the power of the five permanent members of the Security Council, but rather as a way to guarantee greater legitimacy and representation when major decisions are made.

"If the most powerful feel this is an exercise to limit them, we can easily be on the path to failure".

"Changes and reform must be in line with today's realities, greater legitimacy and decisions will be easily accepted".

The UN Security Council has five permanent members, US, UK, Russia, China and France, with another 15 as non permanent members which are renewed every two years. Currently Latinamerica is represented by Chile and Mexico.

The US Security Council went through a sour experience earlier this year when it failed in attempting a consensus in the Iraq crisis.

According to Mr. Annan renovation means acknowledging the new forces that make up the world now a day.

"The vital question is whether power will be applied individually or collectively", said Mr. Annan who added that in an era of interdependency, common threats and common dangers, such as terrorism and poverty, weapons of massive destruction, illness, intolerance and lack of justice, "collective action is the reply".

If no agreement on reforms is reached the UN Secretary General feels that "many will believe the word multilateralism is void of content, the powerful will be tempted to act unilaterally and resentment towards the more powerful will escalate".

"It is possible that the world today is more divided than in the past; the values we share are in danger and this is the type of divisions some terrorist gangs are targeting. We must not let them overrun us", underlined Mr. Annan.

The UN Secretary General named this week a Committee of 16 wise men from all over the world to help with the UN reform process.

Mr. Annan besides Chile will be visiting, Ecuador, Peru and finally Bolivia on November 15 as a special guest of the Ibero-American Summit to be held in Santa Cruz de la Sierra.