CHINA backed Germany for a new permanent seat on an expanded UN Security Council yesterday but, amid rising tension with Tokyo, said that Japan was not ready for a place at the top table of diplomacy.

“China supports Germany playing a bigger role in the United Nations,” Qin Gang, the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, said.

But asked to comment on the attempt by Germany’s Second World War ally Japan, Mr Qin said: “We hope the Japanese side will fulfil its promise to re-examine its history of aggression . . . Only by respecting history can (Japan) win the trust of neighbouring countries.”

Within hours of the Chinese statement, Gerhard Schröder, the German Chancellor, returned the favour by calling in his country’s parliament for the lifting of the European Union’s arms embargo on China, describing it as a symbolic relic.

“I am convinced . . . that the embargo is expendable,” Herr Schröder said in a speech that drew applause and catcalls.

“The lifting of the embargo does not have the goal of increasing arms deliveries to China,” he said. “The core question is how the EU and Germany can pursue their interests towards China in the medium and long term.”

But the Chinese position fuelled dismay in Japan.

Germany and Japan have been working closely together for years to win permanent membership of a reformed Security Council.

Along with Brazil and India, they have formed a group dubbed the Aspirant Four, or A-4, to lay claim to any new permanent seats created in a shake-up of the 15-nation council.

The four powers hope to take advantage of recent reforms proposed by a high-level UN panel, backed by Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General. The proposals suggested two possible models for the expansion of the Security Council, which has five veto-bearing permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — and ten elected members who serve nonrenewable two-year terms.

Model A would add six new permanent members — assumed to be Germany, Japan, Brazil, India and two large African nations — plus three new non-permanent members serving two-year terms. None of the new permanent members would have a veto.

Model B calls for a new category of eight “semi-permanent” members who would be elected for renewable four-year terms, plus one additional two-year elected member. Because a change in the composition of council requires amendment of the UN Charter, all five current permanent members — including China — must approve it.

That leaves Germany and Japan, which were lobbying jointly, in a quandary because Beijing’s opposition to Tokyo leaves Berlin without a powerful partner in its campaign. America backs Japan but has reservations about Germany.

Germany, Japan, Brazil and India had been planning to present a resolution calling for the addition of six new permanent Security Council members. Diplomats from the four powers say that they have the two-thirds majority needed to win the vote.

They calculate that all but a handful of Latin American countries, an overwhelming majority of African nations and some Asian states will support their candidacy. But they face opposition from a group led by Italy and Pakistan who do not want to see regional rivals such as Germany and India win permanent seats.

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