UN: A majority of people around the world want a more powerful UN controlled by an enlarged security council, according to a BBC World Service poll published yesterday.
More than two-thirds of the 23,500 people in 23 countries questioned between November and January said they wanted the powerful 15-member security council expanded to take in Germany, India, Japan and Brazil.
Most people wanted the UN Security Council to have the power to override the veto of one of the five permanent members - currently Britain, the US, Russia, China and France. A clear majority wanted the UN to become "significantly more powerful in world affairs", the BBC said.
"There is strong popular support for the democratisation of the UN system," Doug Miller of pollster GlobeScan said.
UN secretary general Kofi Annan awaited government reactions yesterday for his reform plans, by means of which he hopes to restore confidence in the world body, shaken by the debate over the US invasion of Iraq, corruption in the oil-for-food programme and revelations of sex abuse by UN peacekeepers.