New York - Austria, Iceland, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Turkey, and Uganda are competing for five seats on the UN Security Council in an election on Friday in the UN General Assembly.

The five council seats that will be vacated on December 31 are now occupied by Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa. Those countries are ending their two-year terms in the body that has authority on issues of peace and security around the world.

Austria, Iceland and Turkey are competing for two seats reserved for "Western Europe and Others," which include Australia and New Zealand. The outgoing countries are Italy and Belgium.

Iran and Japan are competing for the Asian seat now occupied by Indonesia.

Uganda is the only candidate for the seat now occupied by South Africa, and Mexico for the seat now occupied by Panama.

The 192-nation assembly each year elects five countries to replace the five outgoing ones.

The 15-nation council is composed of five permanent members with veto power - the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain. The other 10 members are elected to serve two-year terms.

Excluding the five permanent members, which have been on the body since 1945, Japan has had more terms on the council than any other countries, serving more than 15 years.

Iran is competing with Japan for the Asian seat now occupied by Indonesia, saying that it had not been on the council for 52 years.

UN members have been demanding reform of the UN Security Council, including increasing the number of seats from 15 to more than 20, to reflect the emerging economic and political power of developing countries.

Japan, Germany, India, Brazil and South Africa have demanded permanent membership with the same veto right as the current five. But negotiations in the past 14 years to reform the body have stalled on the number of new seats and whether veto power should also be given to new permanent members. (dpa)