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UN flag - Source: Thinkstock
Australia has won its bid for a non-permanent seat on the 15-nation UN Security Council.
Foreign Minister Bob Carr attended a meeting in New York overnight for a secret ballot of the United Nation's 193 members.
Rwanda, Argentina, Luxembourg and South Korea have also won seats on the Security Council.
Australia, which needed at least 129 votes and was relying heavily on African, Caribbean and Pacific Island nations for support, received 140 votes
It is the fifth time Australia will serve on the Security Council, the two-year tenure commencing at the start of 2013.
The council aims to promote international peace and security and is one of the most important in the UN.
McCully contratulates Australia
New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully has been canvassing support for a bid to join the Security Council for the 2015-16 term.
He said he had congratulated Australia, Luxembourg, Korea, Argentina and Rwanda on their appointments.
I have congratulated Foreign Minister Carr on a well-fought campaign, which Australia thoroughly deserved to win, McCully said in a statement.
New Zealand looks forward to working closely with Australia during its two-year tenure on the Security Council.
New Zealands bid for a seat in the 2015-16 term is in good shape, and we will continue to campaign energetically.
McCully used a speech at the UN in New York in September to make his pitch, but was not confident about New Zealand's chances.
"There's in fact an accepted wisdom in some parts that the only way you can get a security council seat these days is to buy one. We're not going to do that, we're not even going to try doing that," he said.
Turkey and Spain are also competing with New Zealand for the two temporary positions available, says ONE News US correspondent Jack Tame. And both have much larger diplomatic resources, he says.