BERLIN - Germany denied on Wednesday that it is trying to buy a permanent seat on the UN Security Council, if the world body is enlarged, by increasing its spending on international development aid.
"A UN Security Council seat cannot be bought, has never been bought and will not be bought in the future," government spokesman Thomas Steg told reporters at a routine press conference in Berlin.
"A country has a seat on the Council if it is capable of taking on responsibilities at the international level and assuming a certain role in the world, which Germany already has," he said.
According to the daily Handelsblatt newspaper, US President George W. Bush's administration is trying to hinder Germany's case for a seat by saying that it has financial constraints which would limit its role in the body.
But Steg said that was not the reason why the government was planning to increase its spending on development aid to beyond 0.7 percent of gross domestic product, the level recommended by the UN.
He said that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder had affirmed at the annual economic forum in Davos, Switzerland this year that he wanted to reach that spending objective by 2015.
Steg added that Germany is the third biggest net contributor to the United Nations and that it has taken on UN military duties in the Balkans, notably in Kosovo, and Afghanistan.
Germany, Japan, India and Brazil have launched a joint bid for permanent seats, arguing that the current Security Council set-up, which dates from the immediate post-World War II era, is outdated.
Reforming the Council is the most contentious issue in a wide-ranging blueprint to overhaul the UN released in November last year.
Bush said during a visit last month that he has taken no decision on whether Berlin should be given any seat on an expanded Council.
However Italy opposes Germany's bid on the grounds that it believes there should be a European Union seat and sees Berlin's initiative as divisive and following "national interests" at the expense of those of the EU bloc.
03/23/2005 15:45 GMT