European, Asian leaders call for UN to lead anti-terror battle

French President Jacques Chirac (R) holds talk with Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra during a bilateral meeting yesterday in Hanoi, on the sidelines of the fifth Asia-Europe meeting (Asem). PHOTO: AFP

Enlarging the UN Security Council, instability in Iraq, tension on the Korean peninsula, weapons non-proliferation and disease control were also discussed on the opening day of the Asia-Europe Meeting (Asem).

"The leaders agreed that the United Nations should play the leading role in preserving international peace and security," 25 European Union and 13 Asian nations said in a statement at the talks here.

On the sidelines of the two-day summit, which has been overshadowed by deep divisions over Myanmar, China pressed for the EU to lift an arms embargo imposed after the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.

European and Asian leaders emphasized the need for stronger ties between the two regions to balance their respective strong bonds with the United States, with particular focus on security issues.

"For the most part the speakers specifically stressed the increasing role on the United Nations in dealing with this problem (of terrorism)," Romano Prodi, head of the EU's executive commission, told reporters.

"We are not a decision-making group. This is an exchange of views but being 40 percent of the world's population, I think this exchange will have some consequence," he said.

French President Jacques Chirac, who headed to China from Vietnam, was more blunt in his criticism of Washington, attacking the war in Iraq as illegal without UN backing and expressing grave fears for the country's future.

"I believe it was a bad solution which didn't conform with legality and with international law, and so it was a mistake," he told China Central TV.

Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said terrorism was a "global problem" that required global solutions, but was gentler towards the United States.

"The UN of course as a worldwide organisation is best placed to take the initiative. I have the feeling also that the United States shares these views," he said.