Japan could face a domestic outcry for a cut in its contributions to the UN annual budget if it fails to win a permanent seat on an enlarged Security Council, Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura said Wednesday.

Machimura issued the warning at a press conference at the UN headquarters in New York, where he flew Tuesday after a meeting in London with the African Union about the Security Council expansion.

Japan, together with Germany, India and Brazil, has been pushing for a General Assembly vote on a draft resolution to enlarge the Security Council. The four countries, known as the G4 or Group of Four, are lobbying for new permanent council seats.

Machimura cited a recent town hall meeting in Japan, where a participant called for a reduction of the country's contributions to the UN budget if it was denied a permanent seat on the council.

"If we are not able to become a permanent member, the kind of thinking that was expressed at the town meeting will rapidly proliferate," he said. "That is something I can easily anticipate."

Currently, Japan contributes 19 percent of the United Nations' 1.8 billion-US dollar annual budget, second only to the United States' 22 percent.

But Machimura said the Japanese government is confident that Japan would win a permanent council seat and it has not yet decided what to do in case of a defeat.

The G4 proposes adding six permanent members and four non-permanent members to the Security Council and imposing a 15-year freeze on the veto power of the new permanent members.

It has sought to win the support of the 53-nation African Union, which is calling for an increase of six permanent members with veto power and five non-permanent members.

Machimura said the African Union has planned to hold a summit on August 4 in Ethiopia to decide on whether to accept the concessions offered by the G4 at the London meeting.

He noted that the G4 will wait until after the African summit to request a vote on the Security Council expansion by the General Assembly.

(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2005)