APEC leaders pledged to rid the world of WMD, strive for peace in the Korean peninsula (AFP)

BANGKOK, October 21 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – The Pacific Rim leaders vowed Tuesday, October 21, to dismantle "terrorist" organizations and strive for peace on the Korean peninsula, as some press reports expressed disappointment the organization's two-day summit focused on U.S. concerns about regional security rather than trade issues.

"We agreed that transnational terrorism and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction pose direct and profound challenges to APEC’s vision of free, open and prosperous economies," the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders said in a joint declaration carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Widening the focus of a group that was founded in 1989 to promote free trade and economic cooperation, they committed to taking "all essential actions to dismantle, fully and without delay, transnational terrorist groups that threaten the APEC economies".

The leaders pledged to rid the world of weapons of mass destruction "by strengthening international non-proliferation regimes, adopting and enforcing effective export controls, and taking other legitimate and appropriate measures against proliferation".

And agreement was also reached on curbing the spread of so-called man-portable air-defense systems, known as MANPADS, which Washington fears terrorists could use to shoot down civilian airliners.

Six-Party Talks

Wearing vibrant Thai silk shirts, the leaders stood side by side as Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra pressed home the need to work for a stable Korean peninsula, amid concerns raised by North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

"We seek a peaceful resolution through dialogue while addressing all the concerns of the parties including the security concerns raised by the DPRK (North Korea)," said Thaksin.

"We are committed to the maintenance of peace and stability on the peninsula and support continuation of the six-party talks and look forward to concrete and verifiable progress toward a complete and permanent nuclear weapons-free Korean peninsula”.

But despite a U.S. push for an official condemnation of North Korea, the leaders' document did not include a joint call for North Korea to disarm, nor was there a separate statement on the issue as Japan had wanted.

Bush, who left for Singapore on Tuesday on the next leg of his Asian tour, ruled out giving Pyongyang the non-aggression treaty it demands but said he was exploring ways to provide written security assurances backed by Washington's partners in talks on North Korea -- South Korea, China, Japan and Russia.

The U..S president and other top officials used the summit to sound out Washington's partners on the new initiative with its urgency highlighted by the firing of a North Korean short-range missile on Monday.

In the meanwhile, Chinese President Hu Jintao said the communist giant would "unswervingly" but "cautiously" press ahead with political reform.

"We will press ahead with political reform unswervingly, actively and cautiously," he said on the sidelines of the summit in a press conference the first solo media opportunity Hu has given since he took over as China's leader from former president Jiang Zemin in March.

The U.S. circles have long called for more freedoms in the giant Asian country, and Chinese people and analysts have been keenly watching for signs to see if the new leader is reform-minded.

 ‘Re-energizing’ Multilateral Talks

While the summit was overshadowed by security issues, to the ire of some leaders, principally Malaysia's Mahathir Mohamad, the world's powerbrokers agreed to throw their support behind the multilateral trade negotiation process which foundered in Mexico last month.

"We agreed to re-energize the negotiation process... recognizing that flexibility and political will are urgently needed to move the negotiations toward a successful conclusion," they said in the joint declaration.

Obsession

But newspapers in some of the APEC’s countries warned the agenda of the two-day meeting may see APEC drift into a quasi-security and political organization “serving the agenda of a dominant power and its partners”.

“The irony is that the so-called breeding grounds of terrorism in the region can be closed down if APEC's original economic-oriented objectives succeed,” said Kuala Lumpur’s New Straits Times.

“It is no surprise that security issues and terrorism will become reasons at the APEC forum for making all of its members follow Western suggestions and directions for the sake of their own interests and benefits,” reported Indonesia’s Medan’s Waspada.

“It is inevitable that a forum like Apec, bringing together the economic giants of China and the United States, will be dominated by their concerns. There is little point lamenting it. It is the way of the world,” according to The Dominant Post of New Zealand.

“The United States wants to switch the Apec forum, which should talk about the economy, to a political forum. The U.S. domination in the post-Cold War world politics is very prominent,” said the Jakarta Republika.

“This country became the sole superpower, which causes fear in other countries. As a consequence, with its power, the United States always becomes the decisive party in many forums,” it added.

Despite the long list of important economic and security issues, the APEC summit which in past years has been hijacked by political issues, was again distracted by diplomatic spats.

A row over Mahathir's controversial comments about Jewish influence made at an Islamic conference last week flared again on Tuesday when he repeated that "arrogant" Jews ruled the world.

The outspoken leader said on Monday that the APEC was formed as an economic cooperation group.

“But we don't agree with taking away economic matters into security, military or politics, which are not really for APEC," he said.