Russia tells top business to help fight terrorism

MOSCOW, Nov 29 (Reuters) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told some of the globe's most influential businesses today they must take more responsibility in the fight against terrorism.

Top decision makers from companies such as European aerospace maker EADS, US-based Citigroup and oil producer BP gathered in Moscow to swap ideas on how business can fight extremist violence.

''Only with the participation of state and business can terrorism be contained,'' Lavrov told about 450 delegates at a conference Moscow hosted as part of its chairmanship of the Group of Eight industrial nations.

''I believe we should begin with the priority sectors of transport, energy, cyberspace and infrastructure,'' he said.

The conference was to endorse a ''strategy for partnerships between states and businesses to counter terrorism'' tomorrow.

Russia says it has suffered as much as any other country from attacks on civilians -- most linked to its decade-old fight against Chechen separatists -- and has a huge amount of counter-terrorism experience.

Chechen insurgents have killed hundreds of Russians in the by bombing Moscow's public transport and blowing up planes.

In 2004 more than 300 people, half of them children, died after rebels captured a school in Beslan, southern Russia.

FRONTLINE Businesses say they are already working closely with governments to make life harder for violent extremists.

Areas highlighted at the conference included mining firms tightening trade in precious metals and diamonds to stop extremist groups using them to fund their activities, and telecoms firms improving monitoring of the Internet.

Paul Galant, a member of Citigroup's Management Committee, said financial services also had a role. He said last year around 5 billion was moved around the globe through unofficial channels compared to 167 billion dollars by formal means.

A partnership between government and business should make official channels more attractive, he said, and ''leave the informal channels much more exposed to scrutiny which would in fact reveal the illegal activity.'' Russian President Vladimir Putin's counter-terrorism envoy, Anatoly Safonov, told Reuters there was a recognition that force alone was not enough to defeat extremist violence.

''We have to fight in the frontline with the military and in the rear with business,'' he said.

The G8 countries are Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.

REUTERS PB BD2338