LISBON -- The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council should lose their right of veto as part of a “sweeping reform” of the institution, an international association of lawyers which acts as a consultant to the UN proposed over the weekend.

Speaking late on Saturday at the opening of a four-day conference in Lisbon of the International Association of Lawyers, the President of the association, Antoine Akl, said the veto right was "totally unadapted to the current reality of international society".

At the same time the Security Council, the UN's most powerful decision-making body, should be expanded to include other nations such as Germany, Japan, Brazil, India and Nigeria, Akl said.

There have been persistent calls in recent years for the expansion of the Security Council, which currently has five permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the U.S. -- and 10 non-permanent ones, who are elected for two-year terms.

One of the main criticisms of the United Nations is that the five permanent members, which reflect the post-war power structure that held sway when the Security Council was set up in 1945, do not mirror current geopolitical realities.

Akl said the changes were needed to enable the United Nations, founded in the aftermath of World War II, to function more effectively. If put in place, the proposed changes to the charter of the UN would greatly increase the powers of the UN General Assembly, the body which represents all UN members.

While there has been general agreement that the General Assembly should be expanded, there are differing views over how many seats should be added and what voting rights they should be granted.

Calls for a reform of the UN have increased since the Security Council failed to reach a consensus over the U.S.-led military invasion of oil-rich Iraq earlier this year.

Among other changes proposed by the Paris-based lawyers' association, which is also known by its French acronym UIA, is the removal of articles in the UN charter -- set up in 1947 -- which refer to the outcome of World War II.

The lawyers also want resolutions passed by the UN to be backed by sanctions, call for an overhaul of the way the organization is financed and say its headquarters should be moved from the United States to a "neutral" country.

Earlier on Saturday Akl told the Portuguese weekly newspaper ***Expresso*** he thought Washington -- which currently pays roughly 25 percent of the UN's budget -- should play a much smaller role in financing the 192-member body.

"(The U.S.) uses its power to exert pressure and often does not pay its dues, which jeopardizes the existence of the most important world institution," he said.

At the end of his speech Akl presented the UIA recommendations to Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio, who acted as host at the opening of the conference.

The Lebanese lawyer is expected to hand the proposals at a later date to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

More than 1,000 lawyers from around the world are taking part in the 47th annual UIA conference. The organization says it is the oldest and largest global grouping of lawyers.