¡¡¡¡UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday elected Algeria, Benin, Brazil, the Philippines and Romania to become the new five non-permanent members of the Security Council.

¡¡¡¡The quintet will take up their seats on the first day of next year, replacing Bulgaria, Cameroon, Guinea, Mexico and Syria, which will step down as scheduled at the end of their two-year terms. The new members will serve on the 15-member council until the end of 2005.

¡¡¡¡The new group were elected according to a pre-arranged geographical distribution, which allocated three seats to African and Asian countries, one seat to an Eastern European nation and one seat to a Latin American or Caribbean state.

¡¡¡¡China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States are the council's five permanent members. Enditem ¡¡

¡¡¡¡