BERLIN, June 24 (Xinhuanet) -- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder will lobby for his country a permanent seat in the UN Security Council in talks with US President George W. Bush in Washington next Monday, government sources said here on Friday.

    Schroeder is still optimistic about Germany's chances of acceptance in the Council, the sources said.

    The United States had said that it would support adding Japan and one other nation as permanent members of the Security Council, but strongly indicating that a pan-European seat might be preferable to one for Germany alone.

    Germany favors a plan that would enlarge the council to 25 seats, including six new permanent and four rotating seats. Japan,Brazil, India and Germany formed a lobbying group in New York aimed at helping each other gain permanent seats on the Security Council.

    Schroeder is said to be confident that international support inthe 59th UN General Assembly for the German proposal is increasing.The assembly requires a two-thirds majority to change the UN ground rules.

    During the three-hour talks with Bush at the White House, the German chancellor will also brief Bush on the European Union budget crisis, the sources said. Preparations for G8 summit in Scotland on July 6-8 is also on the agenda of their talks.

    The Brussels EU summit last week, aimed at striking a deal on the 2007-2013 budget for the 25-nation bloc, ended with no result,throwing the union into another crisis shortly after it saw a political one when France and the Netherlands vetoed the EU constitution in referenda. Enditem