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