Swiss to vote on U.N. membership

Swiss President Villiger is urging voters to join the U.N.

BERNE, Switzerland -- Switzerland is urging voters to reject the country's traditional neutral and isolationist position and join the United Nations.

"The time is ripe for Switzerland to become a member of the United Nations," Swiss President Kaspar Villiger said on Tuesday.

Villiger said the country had to open itself up to the global community to address problems no single land could solve alone.

"If we are not a U.N. member, it is not to the detriment of the U.N., but to the detriment of Switzerland," he told a news conference to kick off the coalition government's campaign to rouse the "yes" vote in the run-up to a referendum on March 3.

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Switzerland and the Vatican are the only two states in the world that are not members of the United Nations, although both have observer status.

Ironically, Switzerland hosts the U.N.'s European headquarters in Geneva and is one of the largest contributors to the world body.

It also belongs to most of the main U.N. agencies such as the World Health Organisation.

However, in March last year Swiss voters overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to enter into membership talks with the European Union.

Opinion polls show the outcome of the U.N. vote is still wide open. In a similar poll, in 1986, the move was rejected by a margin of three-to-one.

Under the Swiss system of direct democracy, joining the U.N. requires not only a majority of the votes cast, but also must carry most of the Swiss cantons (states).

Opponents of joining are led by Christoph Blocher, a billionaire businessman who argues that joining the U.N. would undermine Swiss neutrality and direct democracy and make the landlocked nation of 7.2 million a pawn of the big powers in the U.N. Security Council, whose veto rights he called "an abomination."

Blocher, a leading figure in the populist Swiss People's Party, also accuses the government of understating the costs of becoming the U.N.'s 190th member.

Berne says it would cost around 70 million Swiss francs ($42.4 million), but Blocher said this did not include a "bloated" new bureaucracy and extra diplomatic travel.

Villiger, backed by the Swiss foreign and defence ministers, stressed that the U.N. could not force Switzerland to take part in military action and would not encroach on Swiss neutrality.