UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Venezuela and Guatemala failed to break a deadlock on Thursday in their battle for a seat on the U.N. Security Council, diplomats from both countries said.
The goal is to fill an open Latin American seat on the council, the most powerful U.N. body, following 41 rounds of inconclusive voting and sharp divisions among the 35 Latin American and Caribbean nations.
Leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has called the contest a campaign against U.S. dominance over developing nations.
His foe, Washington, has lobbied for Guatemala, a country that has never had a seat on the council.
Venezuela trailed Guatemala in all but one of the ballots. But Guatemala was not able to get the required two-thirds majority in the 192-member General Assembly.
In an attempt to resolve the impasse, Foreign Ministers Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela and Gert Rosenthal of Guatemala conferred on Thursday. Both have said they would withdraw providing they could agree on an acceptable substitute.
But they said no agreement was reached and Rosenthal said Guatemala was not ready to pull out of the race.
No new talks have been set but Guatemala's U.N. ambassador, Jorge Skinner-Klee, told Reuters that Rosenthal was open to more meetings after next week's 42nd round of balloting, depending on Ecuador, which heads this Latin American and Caribbean group and hosted Thursday's meeting.
"What we would like is for Venezuela to bravely withdraw its candidacy so we can assume ours. We are not prepared to do it," Rosenthal told reporters. "We are so close to getting two-thirds of the votes we aren't motivated to drop out,"
He said he was "disconcerted, utterly surprised" at news reports saying Venezuela supports Bolivia and the Dominican Republic as a substitute candidate.
"Guatemala informed us it was not prepared to give ground to reach a formula for consensus," Maduro said.
"We will be talking to groups of friendly countries in the next couple of days," the Venezuelan minister added.
Venezuela voiced support for its ally Bolivia as an alternate candidate but Guatemala has refused.
In Washington, the president of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, said Maduro had offered to propose his nation as an alternate candidate. Diplomats said this did not come up at the talks.
Fernandez told reporters he had not sought Venezuela's backing for the council seat and would only accept it if Guatemala agreed.
"What's being sought is a solution to the impasse," said Fernandez, who met President George W. Bush on Wednesday.
The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China hold permanent seats on the Security Council.
Ten other nations sit on the council for two-year terms, five elected each year.
Guatemala and Venezuela are vying for the Latin American seat that Argentina will vacate on December 31. Peru stays on the council until the end of 2007.
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