Rice spurns Venezuela's bid for UN Security Council seat

Rice spurns Venezuela's bid for UN Security Council seat

Tue Sep 26, 10:33 AM ET

NEW YORK (AFP) - The UN Security Council needs "responsible states" and not those who want to air their anti-American views at the expense of solving crucial problems, United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

"It would mean the end of consensus on the Security Council. Now, that's a serious matter," Rice told The Wall Street Journal in an interview whose transcript was released Monday by the State Department.

"This is about whether or not a state is responsible or simply wishes to have a constant struggle with the United States every day on every issue, thereby making the Security Council unworkable," Rice said when asked about Venezuela's chances of being chosen as a permanent, non-veto wielding council member.

Germany, Brazil, India and Japan, as part of a so-called Group of Four, have lobbied for permanent seats as part of the first expansion of the council since the UN was founded in the aftermath of World War II.

The Security Council has 15 members of which five -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- are permanent members with veto rights. It is to be expanded to six new permanent seats without veto power and four new non-permanent seats.

New non-permanent members are due to be designated in October.

The United States, which accuses Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of seeking to destabilize democracies in Latin America, has backed Guatemala's rival bid for one of the seats reserved for a Latin American nation.

"This is about the most important body in the world and you want responsible states on that body," Rice told The Wall Street Journal.

She referred to a speech Chavez last week gave before the UN General Assembly, in which he described US President George W. Bush as "the devil," and suggested that the September 11 attacks on the United States were self-inflicted.

"I will tell you that I think Hugo Chavez did himself no good with that speech," Rice said. "And whatever press attention it got, it also got the attention of a lot of people who worry about the responsibilities of the Security Council."