United Nations, Sep 24 (IANS): India, Brazil, Germany, and Japan, four aspirants of permanent membership of the UN Security Council have reiterated their common vision of an enlarged Security Council for the 21st century.

Meeting in the margins of the opening of the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly, here Friday the foreign ministers of the four nations "once again committed themselves to continue to work together in order to bring about the urgently needed reform of the Security Council".

A joint press statement issued after the meeting among Indian External Affairs Minister S. M. Krishna, Brazil's Antonio de Aguiar Patriota, Germany's Guido Westerwelle and Japan's Koichiro Gemba, recalled their previous joint statements of Sep 24 last year and Feb 11 this year on the issue.

The G4 seeks an expansion of the Security Council in "both the permanent and non-permanent categories of membership, taking into consideration the contributions made by countries to the maintenance of international peace and security, as well as the need for increased representation of developing countries in both categories, in order to better reflect today's geopolitical realities."

The statement noted that an initiative to promote consultations with member states on a draft resolution on expansion of the Security Council "has been supported by a wide coalition of member states, from all regional groups of the United Nations".

"Therefore, the ministers expressed the view that such strong support should be considered as the basis for further discussion in the ongoing intergovernmental negotiations to create the momentum needed for real negotiations among Member States on this all-important matter," it said.

Welcoming the decision by the General Assembly to immediately continue the process of intergovernmental negotiations in the informal plenary of the 66th Session, the four "affirmed their full support to the negotiations."

They also expressed their determination to work in close cooperation with other Member States in a spirit of flexibility and press ahead with all the necessary steps to achieve a concrete outcome in the current session of the UN General Assembly.