Congo presses for African Security Council seats

Africa must have two permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council as the world can longer manage crises under a system used since World War Two, Congo Republic’s President Denis Sassou Nguesso says

Sassou Nguesso questioned how the international community could hold meetings around the world about the global financial crisis and yet not include African leaders.

“We agree that two permanent seats on the Security Council (are needed) for Africa and I am persuaded that the world cannot manage these sort of crises without Africa,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a meeting of African and French leaders.

About 40 African leaders, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and more than 200 French and African companies are meeting in the French city of Nice to discuss issues including the economy, security and development.

France, which has one of five permanent seats on the Security Council, will chair the G8 and G20 meetings next year and African leaders are hoping to persuade Sarkozy of the need for radical change at the United Nations.

“We can’t manage the world like we have since the Second World War,” Sassou Nguesso said.

The U.N. with its system of five permaNent members of the Security Council was created in 1945.