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UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Panama won a seat on the U.N. Security Council with the 48th ballot Tuesday after Guatemala, backed by the U.S., and Venezuela, led by leftist anti-American President Hugo Chavez, dropped out to end a deadlock.
Panama got 164 votes in the 192-member U.N. General Assembly, more than the 120 needed to win the two-year term starting January 1. Venezuela got 11 votes, Guatemala 4 votes, and Barbados 1 vote.
The race for the seat, one of 10 rotating seats on the council, began October 16, and became highly contentious because of U.S. support for Guatemala on one hand Chavez' open hostility to President Bush on the other. In a speech at the U.N. General Assembly in September Chavez called Bush "the devil." A number of countries said Chavez' anti-Bush comments hurt Venezuela's chances.
Guatemala led Venezuela in all but one of the 47 ballots, but couldn't muster the two-thirds support needed to win in the General Assembly. The standoff was the third-longest battle for a seat on the Security Council in the U.N.'s 61-year history.
General Assembly President Sheikha Haya Rashed Al Khalifa, who announced the results, said she was "delighted" that all five new members of the Security Council had now been chosen -- Belgium, Indonesia, Italy, Panama and South Africa.
Diplomats in the assembly chamber burst into applause when Panama was announced the winner.
The foreign ministers of Guatemala and Venezuela virtually assured Panama's success, when they agreed to withdraw from the race, in order to help Panama, which they called a bridge between the northern and southern nations in Latin America. The 34 Latin American and Caribbean nations endorsed Panama as the group's candidate on Friday.
Panama's U.N. Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias said his country presented its name in "a spirit of understanding the different conflicts that there are in the world, especially those caused by cultural and religious differences."
Because of Panama's very diverse culture and its different races and religion, he said the country can "contribute to peace and international stability."
Arias stressed that together with Peru, whose term on the council goes through 2007, Panama will defend the interests of Latin American and Caribbean countries.
The Security Council has five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. The other 10 seats, filled for two-year terms, are portioned out to the five United Nations regional groups.
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