Steinmeier's statement was surprising firstly because it had been widely believed that Germany's new conservative Chancellor Angela Merkel had little enthusiasm for pursuing her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder's Security Council ambitions. There are currently five permanent members -- the United States, China, Russia, Britain, and France. Secondly, despite the General Assembly debate on council enlargement in early November, the subject seemed a dead issue, buried under internal disagreements over rival formulas, and the opposition of the United States.

In the debate, the Indian ambassador at the United Nations, Nirupam Sen, had made the astonishing charge that "the most powerful member" of the U.N. Security Council -- in other words, the United States -- was opposed to re-introducing resolutions on the expansion of the council because the aspiring nations had "bitten off more than they could chew." Those nations were Japan, Germany, Brazil, and India, in one grouping (known as the G4), and the members of the African Union in another.

There is no question that the 15-member U.N. Security Council is outdated and needs to broaden its membership, but an attempt to initiate an enlargement this summer ran into the Bush administration's insistence that priority needed to be given to more pressing aspects of U.N. reform, such as finance restructuring, management, and reorganizing the U.N. Human Rights Commission. The most that Secretary General Kofi Annan was able to salvage on the enlargement issue was "permission" to produce a progress report in December.

"But what progress?" commented Sola Ogunbanwo, the special representative of Nigeria. He said President Olusegun Obasanjo and African Union Commission chair Alpha Omar Konare are jointly working on jump starting the process. "African states want to return to the table to advance what is diplomatically attainable, where for now the politically desirable is not attainable," Ogunbanwao said.

The G4 proposal calls for the addition of four permanent seats, plus one additional non-permanent seat. To gain their objective the four nations are willing to forego the power of veto held by the current five permanent members. The African proposal calls for the addition of two permanent members, plus four non-permanent seats, with the Africans insisting on the same veto powers of the existing members.

A third group of members calling themselves United for Consensus and including among others Italy, Pakistan, Colombia, and Argentina, called for no addition of permanent seats; but the group proposes several changes to the non-permanent seats, including allowing members to be re-appointed, and longer periods of tenure.

An Indian official said in Washington that the G4 planned to give fresh momentum to the campaign. At the same time, an adviser on special political affairs to the Secretary-General says "The Secretary-General remains committed to moving the issue forward. Creative diplomacy will eventually force the opponents of reform either to explain why Africa should be excluded from the council or to help forge a historic compromise on enlargement."

A U.S. official said Thursday that the American position had not changed since the U.N. summit on institutional reform in September. That position is still that Washington would consider adding Japan as a permanent member at some future date, but not the other three members of the G4. So is there any point to renewing the effort? Countries supporting enlargement want to show some activity before Annan writes his progress report to the Security Council. That way the Secretary General can report continued interest -- and the Bush administration cannot say that the issue is dead.