Leaders of Brazil, India, Japan and Germany will meet next week in New York to announce their support for each other's bids for permanent seats on the UN Security Council.
The four nations will meet on September 21st to throw their combined weight behind the "long process" to win seats and have a greater say in UN decision making, Brazil's Foreign Minister Celso Amorim said on Thursday.
"In the same way that we consider that Japan and Germany are natural candidates among developed nations I believe that you can say that Germany and Japan see Brazil and India as natural candidates among developing nations," Mr Amorim told reporters during a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to Brazil.
Mr Amorim said the united bid by the four nations did not exclude other nations in Africa and elsewhere from seeking permanent seats.
The comments came after Brazil and Japan issued a joint statement that they would back each other's bids to join the five permanent members of the council with veto power - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - that have held seats since the end of World War Two.
Brazil, which has one of 10 rotating two-year berths on the council, has been campaigning for years to be included in any expansion of the body.
Secretary-General Kofi Annan plans to put forward his own plan for reshaping the council this year and press for its acceptance in 2005.
Any changes to the structure of the 15-member council must be approved by two-thirds of General Assembly members and can be vetoed by any of the five permanent members.