Asia-Pacific leaders rally round Bush in war on terror, anti-nuke drive
Murmurs of disquiet on the handling of the US-led anti-terrorist drive were almost drowned out at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit, which all but ditched its usual agenda of trade and economics.
Weekend talks conclude Sunday with an informal "retreat" in the neoclassical La Moneda palace of Santiago, followed by a joint statement.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Nuclear fears injected a new scale of concern over global security.
After meeting Saturday with leaders of China, Japan, South Korea and Russia, Bush said they had a joint message for North Korea: "Get rid of your nuclear weapons programs."
A senior White House aide said North Korean officials had let China know in recent weeks that Pyongyang was prepared to return to talks aimed at ending a nuclear weapons crisis, but "when, or how, or who, they did not say."
Three rounds of multilateral talks have taken place since the stand-off began in October 2002, but Pyongyang boycotted a fourth round of talks scheduled for Beijing in September.
Bush meanwhile leveraged support at the summit to give Iran warning over reports that the Islamic republic has accelerated production of uranium material that could be used to make nuclear weapons.
"This is a very serious matter, the world knows it's a serious matter, and we're working together to solve this matter," he said.
"It's very important for the Iranian government to hear that we are concerned about their desires, and we're concerned about reports that show that prior to a certain international meeting, they're willing to speed up processing of materials that could lead to a nuclear weapon," Bush said.
Diplomats told AFP on Friday that Iran is producing the uranium feedstuff that could be used to make nuclear weapons, only days before it is due to introduce a promised ban on all such enrichment activities.
Comments