US signs terror treaty in Asia

THE United States and a bloc of Southeast Asian nations have agreed on a sweeping anti-terrorism treaty intended to plug security holes, boost US aid to the region and free the United States to more easily confront terrorists there.

Secretary of State Colin Powell signed the pact yesterday with the ten members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, whose region has become a second front in the war against al-Qaida and other international terrorists.

Mr Powell wants the treaty to lead to a substantial upgrading of security in the region, a senior US official said yesterday.

Under the agreement, the countries would share information and increase police co-operation. It would also mean more US technical and logistical aid to the region.

On Wednesday, ASEAN joined the United States, China and 11 other countries in a separate bid to block extremists from accessing the money they need to carry out terror attacks.

Their agreement targets terrorists' finances with a range of co-operative efforts from freezing assets to creating "financial intelligence units".

"We will block terrorists' access to our financial system," the forum promised in a joint statement. They agreed to freeze the assets of suspected terrorist groups "without delay".

The forum comprises the ASEAN countries Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam along with other nations that have security interests in the region.

For Southeast Asia, it's not only a security issue but an economic one: fear of terror activity here, the region's leaders say, impedes investment and economic recovery.

Their annual meeting derided in the past as an ineffective, bureaucratic talk shop has been the scene of intense diplomatic contacts dealing with issues ranging from tensions on the Korean peninsula to the conflict between India and Pakistan.

Indian Foreign Minister Yashwant Sinha said Southeast Asians had no reason to fear that India would go to war with Pakistan, but insisted that talks between the nuclear rivals would not occur until cross-border terrorism halts. "There is absolutely nothing to fear," Mr Sinha said.

Mr Powell, who recently visited both India and Pakistan, told Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi that tensions had eased considerably and that an outbreak of war is unlikely, a Japanese official said.

But Mr Powell added that "much still needs to be done", the official said. US officials travelling with Mr Powell were not immediately available for comment.

Mr Powell also told Mr Kawaguchi that the United States has absolutely no plans to attack Iraq, which Washington accuses of threatening world peace by sponsoring terrorism and developing weapons of mass destruction.

In another regional alliance against terrorism, Malaysia and Australia plan to sign a pact today promoting intelligence-sharing and co-operation between the nations' immigration, legal, defence and customs officials.

Taiwan ... Asia's ostracised power

IT'S far enough south, most definitely east and obviously Asian. But one island republic had no voice in this week's conference of Southeast Asian nations and never does.

That's because it's Taiwan the government virtually all of Asia pretends doesn't exist.

"They're discussing all this regional integration, but everybody is pretending there's no Taiwan," says Cho Hui-wan, an international politics specialist at National Chung Hsing University in Taichung, Taiwan.

"It's hard to have an Asian economic bloc without Taiwan."

No country wants to alienate mainland China, whose economic clout and insistence other nations ignore Taiwan's government have marginalised Taipei more than ever. When tiny Nauru switched allegiances last month it left only 27 countries that recognise Taiwan.

ASEAN, too, has no diplomatic ties with Taiwan, which split from the mainland amid civil war 53 years ago.

While Taiwan may not be on participants' lips, the island republic's influential economy is difficult to ignore.

"There may not be formal governmental ties, but the economic ties are really quite strong," said Pamela Baldinger, a former director of China operations at the US-China Business Council in Beijing.

To many, it's unconscionable to exclude Taiwan from the 10-nation group.

Wherever it turns, though, Taiwan faces the same problem China doesn't want it acting like a country, and China usually gets its way.

Even though other countries don't ignore its economy, Taiwan faces only increasing diplomatic isolation in a region working feverishly to come together for both politics and profit.