Malaysia criticises APEC's security agenda

HANOI, Nov 18 (Reuters) In a thinly veiled swipe at the United States, Malaysia today criticised the increasing role security issues have played at the annual APEC meetings since the September 11 attacks.

Malaysia Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi urged the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum to return to its original purpose of promoting economic growth through freer and fairer trade flows.

''Its assumption of some security role following the September 11 attacks in the United States has compromised its original purpose and blurred its focus,'' Abdullah told an audience of business executives and officials.

''Security, after all, is the express concern of the ARF,'' he said, referring to the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together foreign and defense ministers from around the Asia-Pacific region.

APEC was founded in 1989 to advance mutual trade and economic concerns, but the meetings in recent years have been routinely hijacked by security issues such as terrorism or North Korea, and this year looked to be no different.

All of the countries involved in six-party talks to end North Korea's nuclear programmes are in Hanoi for the APEC meetings, except for the North itself.

US officials say they hope APEC will agree to send a message to put pressure on North Korea on its nuclear programmes by the end of the session tomorrow, possibly through a joint statement or a message from the chairman.

Abdullah also called on APEC leaders to establish a proper appreciation of ''the challenge or perceived threat that is posed by a rapidly prospering China''.

''This has caused some economies to adopt 'hedging strategies' which will constrain full regional cooperation. This will impede the building of the common purpose,'' he told the ''CEO Summit''.

A trilateral security dialogue among APEC members the United States, Australia and Japan has recently focused on the challenges posed by China's rapid emergence and its implications for the region.

Foreign ministers from the three countries met this week on the APEC sidelines.

Abdullah said the leaders needed to ''make the APEC agenda more relevant to the needs and aspirations of all member economies and not just a few''.

APEC accounts for nearly half of global trade and nearly 60 per cent of the world's GDP and encompasses economies and political systems as different as global superpower the United States and the tiny sultanate of Brunei.

Their agenda is just as diverse and wide-ranging, from climate change and customs procedures to economic security threats and the role of women in development.

''We have absolute monarchies, liberal democracies, military governments and socialist systems,'' Abdullah said.

''We speak in many tongues and we write in different scripts.'' REUTERS DKA BST1314