Staff writer

The United Nations Security Council should expand the opportunity for Eastern European countries to become nonpermanent members by making a substantial effort to reform itself, according to a senior Slovak diplomat in charge of U.N. affairs.

Daniela Rozgonova, director of the Slovak Foreign Ministry's U.N. Department, has been in Japan on a four-day visit that ends today, seeking Japanese support for Slovakia's bid to become a nonpermanent member of the Security Council in a vote scheduled for October.