The G4 foreign ministers -- Brazil's Celso Amorim, Germany's Joschka Fischer, India's Natwar Singh and Japan's Nobutaka Machimura -- met over a working luncheon with an 18-member team led by Nigerian Foreign Minister Olu Adeniji, whose country currently chairs the African Union.

The AU delegation also included South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, Libyan African Affairs Minister Ali Triki and Egypt's deputy foreign minister Samih Chukri as well as senior officials of 14 other member states.

The talks, held at India's UN mission, centered on differences between the two groups' respective draft resolutions for Security Council enlargement.

Diplomatic tug-of-war

The AU draft is demanding veto power for two permanent Security Council seats that would be allocated to Africa as well as five non-permanent council seats, including two for Africa. But Adeniji last week signaled AU's readiness to compromise on the issue of veto power.

The G4 blueprint calls for boosting Council membership from 15 members to 25, with six new permanent seats without veto power, including two for Africa, and four non-permanent seats.

Singh said the two sides had had a "useful, constructive and cordial meeting" and were committed to finding a way for "our differences not only to narrow, but to disappear."

He later flew to Washington where he was to join his Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is beginning a US visit, including talks with President George W. Bush on Monday.

"We are working together, trying to work out our differences which are smaller than our similarities," said Brazillian Foreign Minister Amorim.

Smoothing out the differences

Amorim announced creation of a follow-up mechanism grouping representatives of the G4 and the AU "in order to reach an outcome acceptable to all," which will then be examined by their foreign ministers around July 25 in Geneva or another city.

The smaller follow-up task force is expected to put forward recommendations by next Friday. G4 diplomats said that if everything went smoothly, an acceptable compromise draft would be put to a vote, but not before July 29.

Speaking for the AU, the Nigerian Foreign Minister Adeniji said: "We were meeting for the first time. We made as much progress as we can today."

Nigeria is, along with South Africa and Egypt, one of the three strong contenders for the two permanent seats sought by Africa on the Security Council.

G4 diplomats said that during Sunday's session, Nigeria was the AU country most forthcoming in speaking in favor of reaching common ground with the G4, while Egypt was more aloof.

The G4 countries see the support of the UN's 54-member African bloc as crucial for passage of their draft resolution, which has the backing of more than 30 countries, including France and Britain. A two-third majority is needed in the 191-member General Assembly for adoption.

"In all the discussions we have to consider that in the end we need a two-third majority," said Fischer. "That should be our standard," he said.

Making the UN more relevant

Earlier the G4 ministers met with the president of the General Assembly, Jean Ping, and then paid a courtesy call on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Soon before the meeting with Ping, Fischer rejected charges that the G4 was pursuing selfish interests with its plan for Security Council enlargement, which is strongly opposed by countries such as the United States, Pakistan, Algeria and Canada.

Fischer said the accusations came from countries which have "no interest" in UN reform or those which do not stand a chance of getting a permanent seat themselves.

At present, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States are the only permanent and veto-wielding members of the council, which also has 10 rotating non-permanent members without veto power.

The proposed expansion of the Security Council is part of Annan's broader UN reform plan to make the world body more relevant to today's realities 60 years after its creation. The UN chief hopes it will be adopted at a world summit in September ahead of the annual General Assembly.

The package includes major reforms in areas such as human rights, the fight against terrorism, peace building, and preventing genocide.