Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit has assigned a delegation to participate in talks on the expansion of the UN Security Council, the official MENA news agency reported Sunday.

Egypt is a member of an African working group tasked by an African Union (AU) summit in Libya in late June with representing the continent in expansion deliberations.

In a meeting with the delegation before its trip to New York, where the UN Headquarters is based, Abul Gheit reaffirmed Africa's legitimate right to two permanent and five non-permanent UNSC seats, as elaborated in the summit final declaration.

The 53-nation AU has presented a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly calling for adding six permanent members, with the veto power, and five elected members to the Security Council.

The AU wants the veto power for new permanent members right away.

Japan, Brazil, India and Germany -- aspirants to permanent seats of the council -- have also presented a draft, which proposes adding six permanent seats and four non-permanent ones.

The draft also proposes freezing the veto power for new permanent council members for 15 years.

Either of the two drafts calls for the allocation of two permanent seats to Africa.

The Security Council is currently composed of five permanent members -- China, Russia, France, Britain and the United States -- and 10 elected members with a two-year term.

Source: Xinhua