Wednesday, October 18, 2006

UNITED NATIONS, (AFP): Venezuela and Guatemala were deadlocked Tuesday in their bid for a UN Security Council seat, with the United States pushing hard to keep Caracas's Hugo Chavez from securing a new platform.

After 21 rounds of voting, US-backed Guatemala had won 20 rounds against rival Venezuela but had failed to attract the necessary two-thirds majority to secure a non-permanent seat on the United Nations' most powerful decision-making body.

The deadlock came despite heavy lobbying in the General Assembly, with Venezuela's ambassador, Francisco Arias Cardenas, and US ambassador, John Bolton, trying to win over wavering members and scrape together the required majority.

The United States is desperate to avoid the seat going to Venezuela, whose President Hugo Chavez has proved a thorn in Washington's side and last month used the world body to describe his US counterpart George W. Bush as the devil.

Guatemala led oil-rich Venezuela Monday in every vote round but the sixth, which resulted in a tie.

Of 11 rounds conducted Tuesday, Guatemala garnered between 100 and 112 votes to Venezuela's 75-85, meaning neither was ever very close to winning the necessary two-thirds majority.

The number of votes required to reach the threshold changes from round to round, depending on the number of abstentions among the 192 member states.

After a marathon session Monday, UN General Assembly President, Sheikha Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa, ordered voting to continue Tuesday.

The scene is set for a protracted battle, with UN rules allowing for indefinite voting. A similar standoff between Cuba and Colombia in October 1979 dragged on for more than two months and 154 rounds.

It ended in January 1980 with the election of a third candidate, Mexico.

A loss would sting Chavez. In remarks Sunday, the firebrand leader described winning a Security Council seat as the centrepiece of his foreign policy and accused Washington of "launching an all-out dirty war" to block the bid.

Bolton, who has been working hard behind the scenes to obtain much-needed votes for Guatemala, said the United States was prepared to stick it out.

"Normally what happens in these circumstances is the country that's so far behind withdraws. We'll see if that's what happens here, but this is only 16 ballots. The record is 154. We're prepared to continue," he said.

He shrugged off comments by the Venezuelan ambassador, Arias Cardenas, who said he would accept a consensus candidate if Bolton admitted the United States had been strong-arming countries on how to vote.

"Countries are making up their own minds," Bolton insisted.

Chilean President, Michelle Bachelet, added her voice to calls for a consensus candidate to be found to break the impasse.

"To be respected as a region we need to look at consensus solutions. Latin America needs a representative with broad support," she said in Santiago.

Washington is concerned that if Venezuela won the seat, the Chavez government would use it to be disruptive, routinely oppose US measures and openly attack the United States.

Chavez saves his choicest vitriolic attacks for the Bush administration and in an address to the UN General Assembly last month said the podium still "smelled of sulphur" a day after the US president Bush had used it.

The council seat is being vacated at the end of the year by Argentina. The General Assembly is deciding on which nation will take it after the Latin American and Caribbean regional group failed to unanimously agree on a candidate.

The Security Council is made up of 15 members, including five veto-wielding permanent members -- China, the United States, France, Britain and Russia -- and 10 non-permanent members, five of which are replaced every year.

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