ASEAN discusses terrorism with U.S.

Indonesia and other ASEAN member countries have held talks with the United States on the terrorism issue in an effort to reach a consensus on how to build cooperation in combating the problem, an Indonesian official said in New York on Friday (Saturday in Jakarta).

Director-general for foreign economic relations at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Makarim Wibisono, who led the country's delegation to the meeting, said the discussions were held in Washington DC on Thursday.

"The discussions were directed toward seeking practical measures that could be implemented directly to combat terrorism," Makarim said.

The talks, he said, touched on three points -- cooperation on the exchange of intelligence information, improving each country's capacities for dealing with the terrorism question, and cooperation on how to protect each country's territory against terrorism.

Makarim said other ASEAN member countries had asked Indonesia to take note of all the issues related to terrorism that had been discussed in the meeting and encouraged it to hold dialogs with the U.S.

Senior ASEAN officials on the sidelines of the meeting also held discussions with U.S. President George W. Bush's national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice.

Makarim pointed out that Rice had hailed the ASEAN effort to enhance its security cooperation with the U.S.

"At least, she showed no hesitation in responding to the wish of the ASEAN countries to enhance security cooperation (with the U.S.)," he said.

Rice, however, asserted in the meeting that increased security in a given region could not only be achieved through military means. --Antara