Bangkok, Oct 19: United States has announced a 5.4 million dollars offer to fight terrorism and secured a qualified support from ministers of Pacific rim countries for a ban on man-portable air weapons. A Thai foreign ministry spokesman said the offer by the United States, made at the end of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation officials and trade ministers here yesterday, ahead of the APEC summit, would go towards direct funding of counter terrorism work.
The Asian Development Bank will operate the regional trade and financial security initiative. The US urged other APEC economies to contribute.
In its concept paper, the US said donors should be engaged in programming decisions and creating benchmarks for assessing performance. The purpose was to ensure more security at airports, cargo ports and containers as well as to enhance the battle against money laundering and terrorist financing, reports said.
The APEC officials also agreed to pursue the Doha round on the basis of the text reached at Cancun.
Nation newspaper quoting observers said the US secured only qualified support for its call to ban man-portable missiles as Malaysia, a member of the 21 member APEC grouping, felt that other for a were more appropriate to deal with terrorism.
Bureau Report