A draft text on the expansion of the United Nations Security Council was rejected by most of the 50 countries who participated in discussing the proposals, with India saying the paper did not have an "unambiguous" formulation for expansion of the group's permanent membership.
During a closed-door meeting in New York on Tuesday night, several developed and developing countries as also small island states said the proposals were unacceptable as a basis for jump-starting negotiations on the thorny issue as they did not include all viewpoints, diplomats said.
India on its part pointed out that the paper does not have the core elements of the position of the Group of Four comprising India, Japan, Germany and Brazil or have a "categorical and unambiguous" formulation on expanding the permanent membership of the council, diplomats said.
India also said the paper does not have a formulation on increasing the representation of developing countries.
The drafters would, therefore, have to substantially revise it before presenting it to the president of the UN General Assembly, who would then start the process of negotiations.
The protracted issue of UNSC reform has been debated by the UN for more than a decade without much progress.
Recently, several countries including India had suggested that instead of a working group discussing the issue endlessly, the assembly should begin inter-governmental negotiations on the elements put forward by various groups.
For that purpose, it was agreed to draft a paper putting down various options.
But several diplomats said the new proposals, prepared by a few West and East European countries and Malaysia, did not meet the requirements.
The paper was, therefore, flawed and hence unacceptable as basis for negotiations, they said.
Members of the G-4, who are strong contenders for permanent seats, favour expanding the membership of the council from 15 to 25 to include six new permanent members and four non-permanent members.
The Uniting for Consensus led by Pakistan, among others, opposes the G-4 proposal and calls for expanding only non-permanent membership from current 10 to 20 while retaining the current permanent members -- the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China.
Diplomats said that the paper proposes increasing the number of membership to 22. It suggests allocating two new seats each to Asia and Africa and one each to Latin America, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, with a review 15 years down the line.
Expansion of the council, even after there is agreement, is a long drawn out process.
The proposal must be approved by the 192-member General Assembly by two-thirds majority and then must be ratified by two-thirds membership, including five permanent members, according to their respective legislative systems, before it takes effect.
Currently, 10 non-permanent members are elected by the General Assembly on regional basis. The retiring member cannot be re-elected immediately for another term.