UNITED NATIONS, Aug 29 (AFP) The Security Council adopted Thursday a compromise aimed at retaining key issues on the council agenda after a decision to drop 50 items caused a storm in Pakistan and triggered a rash of protests here.
Security Council president Tono Eitel told reporters here that the council had adopted the new recommendations from a council working group without discussion.
He stressed that the controversial July 30th decision had been taken "without any bad intention," in order to streamline the council's agenda.
The working group's decision to automatically drop any issue that had not been discussed in the previous five years drew a formal protest letter from Pakistan, concerned about the Kashmir issue.
Other states, including Portugal, which wanted the restoration of the East Timor issue, and Arab countries concerned about the Middle East issues also followed suit, demanding that the decision be reversed.
Diplomats protested that the relevant countries had not been consulted before the decision was taken.
Following two weeks of negotiations, the working group on Wednesday agreed that in future, states would have to annually inform the UN secretarygeneral that it wished a specific matter to be retained on the list.
The new system aims to ensure that no item will be deleted without the prior consent of the member states concerned.
Eitel said Thursday that the new procedure "gives
those countries that had a special interest a more important role."