KL to open antiterror center

KL to open antiterror center

MALAYSIA: Kuala Lumpur will go ahead with plans to set up an antiterrorism center in partnership with the United States despite its objections to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, parliament was told on Wednesday.

Deputy defense minister Mohd Shafie Apdal said the planned Southeast Asia Center for Counter-Terrorism would benefit Malaysia in many ways, including training and the transfer of the latest technology and expertise as well as the exchange of information.

Experts from around the world will serve as instructors at the center, which will be open to all 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations when it is launched some time this year, foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar said last November.

Malaysia first announced it might host the center after U.S. President George W. Bush raised the issue on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Mexico in October. --AFP