With backing from four permanent council members Britain, France, Russia and China, Germany is confident the United States will not thwart its bid, and that the necessary two-thirds of the 191-nation General Assembly would also back its candidacy.
"There are many nations that would welcome it if Germany played a larger role," Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder told Stern magazine this week when asked about his increasingly brash demands for a permanent seat with full veto powers.
"We are the third largest contributor to the United Nations and we have deployed a large number of troops on peacekeeping missions," added Schroeder, who in December won endorsements for his bid from permanent members China and Russia.
Germany, which contributes 400 million euros each year to the UN's budget and has sent 8,000 soldiers on peacekeeping missions, has set up an informal lobby group with Japan, Brazil and India to help each other secure permanent seats.
"No foreign policy goal has been pushed as hard by the German government in recent years as its effort to enter into the club of the permanent five," wrote Stern magazine.
With the United Nations marking its 60th birthday in 2005, there is growing pressure to enlarge the council, whose permanent members have held their seats and wielded veto power since they emerged victorious from World War Two.
Most UN members consider the council's composition outdated and unrepresentative.
A high-level panel on reforming the United Nations has proposed two models, including one that would add six new permanent members without veto powers. Schroeder has spoken out against that, saying council members should have equal powers.