Asian states warned of chemical attacks

The warning came at a conference attended by more than 70 chemical weapons experts, security officials and policy makers from 12 countries including Japan, China, Canada, the United States, Singapore and Thailand.

"There is a growing concern of the potential threat posed by chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons (CBRN) in the hands of terrorists," said Zainal Abidin Zain, director-general of the Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-terrorism.

Chemical weapons were the easiest to manufacture out of the CBRN arsenal, he said, pointing to the sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway by a religious cult in 1995 which killed 12 people and made thousands ill.

Rohan Gunaratna, head of the Singapore-based International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, addressed the conference on a "Recently Recovered Jemaah Islamiyah Chem-Bio Manual".

Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) is seen as the Southeast Asian wing of Osama bin laden's al-Qaeda group and has mounted a string of attacks, including the Bali bombings in October 2002 which killed 202 people.

Gunaratna's address to the conference was behind closed doors because of its "sensitive nature", but he told AFP he would present an assessment of the manual, which he said was "discovered recently in the Philippines".

The manual describes the construction of chemical and biological weapons "in a rudimentary way," he said.

Gunaratna would give no other details of the origin of the manual and it is unclear whether he was referring to a document discovered by Philippine police in May.

Philippine National Security Advisor Norberto Gonzales said then that police investigating suspected Abu Sayyaf Islamic extremists found literature dealing with biological and chemical weapons in their possession.

Gunaratna said the manual which was the subject of his address dealt with the use of such weapons "in a rudimentary way", and described the threat of such attacks as "low probability, high consequence".

JI and other regional groups had achieved success with conventional bombing attacks, he said, but had shown interest in chemical and biological weapons and certainly it is a threat that governments in this region must be aware of and must prepare for".

Gunaratna said Yazid Sufaat, a Malaysian bio-chemist in detention here, had worked with al-Qaeda and JI on an anthrax programme.

Governments needed to become more alert to the threat and develop standard counter measures. "Hospitals should have antidotes and security forces should be better trained, with specialised units to respond to such an eventuality," he said.