15 Leaders at Security Council Summit May Tackle Some U.N. Problems : Diplomacy: Analysts hope they will go beyond photo opportunities to crisis solving, the council’s makeup and pledging payment of dues owed.

Can a photo opportunity turn into a historic opportunity? Most analysts look on Friday’s summit meeting of the U.N. Security Council as mainly an attempt at image-polishing. But there’s some chance that the 15 world leaders will tackle some of the organization’s problems as well.

The meeting apparently was called as an electioneering gimmick by Prime Minister John Major of Britain. It is Britain’s turn this month to serve as president of the Security Council, and worldwide television will show Major presiding over a horseshoe-shaped table crowded with President Bush, Russian President Boris N. Yeltsin, French President Francois Mitterrand, Chinese Premier Li Peng, Japanese Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and nine other chiefs of government and state. No meeting of the Security Council has ever been so star-studded.

Although skeptical that anything meaningful will occur in a one-day session, many analysts who follow U.N. activities closely are hoping that the leaders use this chance to:

* Move the Security Council into the uncharted field of “preventive diplomacy,” a fancy phrase for stopping crises from turning into wars.

* Start a long-overdue process for changing the makeup and perhaps the size of the Security Council.

* Pledge that they pay all the money that they owe the United Nations before the end of this year.

According to word passed to reporters, summit leaders plan to endorse, without voting, a flowery, non-controversial final statement that includes a call for new Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to make recommendations on strengthening the U.N. “capacity for preventive diplomacy, for peacemaking and for peacekeeping within the U.N. Charter.”

The news aroused immediate skepticism.

“Over the years, the secretary generals have made all kinds of proposals,” said Brian Urquhart, a former U.N. undersecretary general. “But that doesn’t get to the real issues in this case.”

Urquhart said that a bold secretary general has enough authority to use fact-finding missions and diplomacy to try to prevent dangerous blowups. Over the years, however, the governments of the major powers have discouraged boldness by the secretary general, he said.

Urquhart and others want the world leaders to look into activating Article 43 of the U.N. Charter, which provides for members to supply troops to a Security Council military force “for the purpose of maintaining international peace and security.”

Present U.N. peacekeeping forces, known as the “Blue Helmets,” are usually assembled after a war and sent to monitor truces and cease-fires. A permanent military force, on the other hand, could be dispatched to a troubled border or other area of tension to prevent war.

The Security Council has never invoked Article 43, largely because it was impossible to imagine the United States and the Soviet Union agreeing on the makeup and duties of such troops.

The summit will make a second U.N. problem obvious in an odd way: by the glaring absence of German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, the leader of one of the strongest nations in the world. Although Germany has not raised the issue, it pays heavy U.N. dues but has little voice in U.N. matters. Germany is not a member of the Big Five permanent members of the Security Council: the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China. It is precluded by history.

The United Nations was created by the victors of World War II, and they reserved the Big Five seats and a veto for themselves.

There is a major obstacle to including Germany now. Its Western European allies, Britain and France, already have permanent seats. Other U.N. members do not want to add a third West European seat. And Britain and France would be reluctant to make way either for Germany or for a combined West European seat.

Japanese Prime Minister Miyazawa would also be absent from the Friday summit if not for chance: Japan was elected to serve this year as one of the 10 alternating members of the Security Council.

According to Japanese Foreign Ministry sources, Miyazawa intends to use the summit conference to start a campaign for council reforms that would lead to a permanent seat for Japan. For years, Japanese diplomats have insisted that Japan, which pays more dues than any other country than the United States, should have a proportionate U.N. impact.

Talk about reform of the Security Council brings other complicating questions as well. Some leading Third World countries, such as India, Nigeria and Brazil, probably would also campaign for permanent seats. And there are knotty questions about whether the veto should be granted to new permanent members and whether total membership of the council should be expanded.

“I don’t think anyone wants to face these issues now,” said Richard N. Gardner, a Columbia University professor of international law who is a former ambassador and deputy assistant secretary of state. “But it can’t be postponed indefinitely. If I could guess a date for when this issue will be faced, I would say in 1995, the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.”

As for the problem of financing, it will be hard for the 15 world leaders to fulminate against the offenders, since their ranks include the worst--the United States and Russia, which assumed the debt from the Soviet Union. This has long been a sore point with U.N. officials.

The United States has arrears of more than $400 million in annual and special peacekeeping assessments. The Bush Administration has promised to pay, but only in long-term installments.