Foreign ministers of African Union (AU) member nations on Saturday agreed to seek two permanent seats in an expanded United Nations Security Council but have not chosen the candidates, media reports said.

The decision was made by foreign ministers of the 53-member AU at their meeting in the Libyan resort city of Sirte, according to reports reaching Addis Ababa.

African leaders have drawn up a plan to demand five seats on the UN Security Council, including two permanent ones, Said Djinnit, AU's commissioner for peace and security, was quoted as saying at a press conference.

The ministerial will be followed by an AU summit scheduled for Monday and Tuesday.

"Africa has methods of selecting its representatives and we do not expect the issue to divide the continent. We are determined that this will be done in a way that preserves our solidarity," Djinnit said.

Brazil, Germany, India and Japan have circulated a draft resolution calling for an increase of 10 seats in the Security Council -- six new permanent seats and four non-permanent ones.

Under the proposal of the so-called Group of Four, four permanent seats will go to the four countries, with two other new permanent seats to go to African nations.

The G-4's resolution has been strongly opposed by Italy, Pakistan, South Korea, Mexico and dozens of other nations, which favor increasing the non-permanent council seats from 10 to 20 and call for consensus on the council reform to avoid a rift among the UN membership.

Source: Xinhua