NAM meet presents awkward time for US friends

Havana, Sep 16: Friends of the United States are finding themselves in an awkward spot at a Non-Aligned Movement summit dominated by anti-U.S. firebrands and hosted by Washington's old foe, Cuba.

Cuba, under a U.S. embargo since 1961, is hosting leaders from Iran and North Korea, charter members of President George W.

Bush's ''axis of evil'', as well as the presidents of Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Belarus and other foes of America.

But alongside heads of states in Washington's rogues gallery gathered in Havana are leaders of long-standing U.S.

treaty allies such as Thailand and the Philippines and countries such as Pakistan and Indonesia that have built close ties to the United States since September 11, 2001.

Faced with prominent Cuban government bulletin boards equating Bush to Hitler and 1960s-era anti-colonial rhetoric from their Cuban hosts, how do U.S.-friendly leaders respond? ''Many delegations here are facing that very dilemma,'' said a Southeast Asian diplomat when asked how his country's close ties with the United States sat with the anti-American rhetoric expected to fly in Havana.

India -- whose founding prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, coined the term ''non-aligned'' and helped launch the NAM -- has since last year forged an unprecedentedly close relationship to Washington. Delhi came to Cuba as an aid donor this time.

Cutting a ribbon at a computer training center built with Indian aid in suburban Havana, India's Deputy Foreign Minister Anand Sharma told his hosts that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was ''household name in India'', but his speech stressed education.

Pakistan officials declined to comment on whether there was any contradiction between President Pervez Musharraf's being a friend of the United States and rubbing shoulders with sworn foes of America.

Analysts said leaders who straddle a divide between security and economic realities that require good ties with the United States and domestic anti-U.S. sentiment may benefit from appearing in a hostile corner of America's back yard.

''Knowing the U.S. view about meetings in Havana, Musharraf shows at home that indeed he has some independence from the United States,'' said Marvin Weinbaum, a retired U.S.

intelligence official and scholar Middle East Institute.

Asked this week about the anti-U.S. tone expected at the Havana summit, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack merely noted that many U.S. friends were present at what he called ''a gathering that has its origins in another era.''

Reuters