Permanent members on the UN Security Council must be increased to take account of the shifting power balance in the world, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has said.
In the Indian capital, New Delhi, last night, Mr Ahern said the council's structure, controlled by the five second World War victors, was "seriously out of line with today's realities".
Last July, India, Germany, Brazil and Japan tabled a formal UN motion to push for full seats on the body for themselves and for an increase in membership from 15 to about 25.
But Japan, which has secured some support from the US for its own ambitions, decided not to support a renewed effort on the question earlier this month.
The US, UK, France, China and Russia sit permanently on the existing body, while the other 10 places are fought over by other UN general assembly members.
The Taoiseach, who today meets Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, discussed the matter during talks with Sonia Gandhi, chair of the ruling Progressive Democratic Alliance.
"We are saying the existing system can't stay in place because it is a 1945 system for 2006. We are not saying we are supporting the Indian demands, but we are not saying that we are not either.
"Everybody isn't going to get their position. In the discussions today I said diplomatically that we want to see change, we want to see reform," he told The Irish Times.
"We are saying the small nations still have to have a right to sit on the council, we are saying there has to be a better balance. Some of the new superpowers have to be taken account of. We dodged it in September. There are a number of models that have been put up. We just have to move onto a better system that is more balanced and representative," he said.
Earlier in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the Taoiseach said Ireland and India shared a common worldview on many issues, with both dedicated to democratic values and human rights.
"Our links in the UN have been close, particularly so as we have both based our approach there, not on military alliances, but on our values and our historical experience. Ireland and India cherish the UN as a universal organisation, based on the essential equality of all peoples and of the states in which they are organised.
"We have both demonstrated a firm commitment to the maintenance of peace and security, reflected in our contribution to UN peacekeeping. Our troops have served together on UN peace missions." Last September in New York, he said he and Prime Minister Singh had called for reform because they recognised the need for the UN to remain an efficient and effective instrument of the international community.
Ireland and India, he told the Nehru Museum gathering, "shared the common experience of a struggle for independence and, moreover, supported each other in these efforts.
"We in Ireland are justly proud that many of the leaders of India's Independence movement were inspired and encouraged by Ireland's fight for freedom and by the words of our great political leaders and writers."
