LONDON, England (AP) – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi was quoted as saying yesterday that the United Nations must scrap the Security Council and give its powers to the General Assembly, if it ever hopes to become a truly democratic organisation.

In a full-page advertisement in The Guardian newspaper, Gadhafi called the UN Security Council “an ugly, forceful, and horrible instrument of dictatorship – an executioner’s whip with no appeal against its judgment, even if its judgment is unfair, biased and harmful.”

The Security Council’s five permanent members – the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China – have veto powers. It also has 10 non-permanent member countries elected to two-year terms.

The world is better represented by the 191-member UN General Assembly, but “it has no powers, no responsibilities and no respect,” said Ghadafi.

He compared it to “a Hyde Park Speaker’s Corner, a fantasy,” and was quoted as saying that it is a waste of money for countries to send delegates to New York “to take part in its ridiculous funny act”.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is currently promoting major management and administrative reforms of the United Nations.

Countries such as Germany, Japan, India and Brazil are also trying to become permanent members of an expanded Security Council.

“The notion of broadening the UN Security Council could expose world peace to new dangers and would initiate a cold war that may soon turn hot,” Gadhafi was quoted as saying. Instead, he said, turning the world body’s powers over to the more representative General Assembly would promote democracy and peace.

If that doesn’t happen, he said, Libya and other countries on the General Assembly may simply withdraw from the United Nations.