United Nations: UN chief Antonio Guterres has called for establishing "balance of power" in the Security Council to make the world body more "democratic". Speaking at a ceremony yesterday at which Egypt took over the chairmanship of the G77 and China from Ecuador, the UN Secretary-General called for a more democratic UN, with power divided in a more balanced way and with more effective diversity in the regional representation at all its bodies. 

"The centre of that is in the reform of the Security Council, it is in the revitalisation of the General Assembly, but one thing that I am strongly committed at the Secretariat level and that is one of the reasons of the management reform that we have proposed is to make sure that, at that the level of the Secretariat, that increased diversity and that balance of power is established," he said. 

He expressed hope that the Group of 77 will be "attentive to the need to make sure that any reform gives an effective contribution to a more balanced and democratic UN where power is better distributed and justice can prevail more easily." He said Group of 77 has a very important role to play not only in a multilateral world but in a world where international relations have more justice.