SE Asian anti-terror agency proposed

SE Asian anti-terror agency proposed

Southeast Asian governments will be asked to create new
counterterrorism authorities and adopt a common definition of
terrorism as part of a regional response to the threat, officials
said Saturday.

Senior officials from Singapore -- where a plot by alleged al-
Qaida-linked militants to bomb Western embassies was foiled last
year -- proposed that each country in the region form a body that
would combine police, immigration and other security-related
resources.

This would make it easier to track terrorist threats and speed
up intelligence sharing, said Tan Boon Huat, a deputy secretary-
general with Singapore's ministry of home affairs.

"It is easier to go to one (agency) than to go to a dozen,"
Tan said.

The proposal was made at a senior officials' meeting aimed at
setting the agenda for two days of talks starting Monday between
police and home security ministers from the 10-country
Association of Southeast Asian Nations in Kuala Lumpur.

Separately, a Malaysian official said his country would ask
ASEAN to define terrorism as any attack against civilians, a
proposal that Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad first made to the
Organization of the Islamic Conference last month.

The Malaysian official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
said Saturday that some ASEAN countries were likely to oppose the
definition as too broad. The proposal was intended to open
discussion on the issue and ministers were not expected to make a
decision on it, he said.

Officials meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Friday adopted a plan to
jointly fight transnational crimes, including terrorism, by
trying to standardize some criminal laws in member countries and
improve intelligence-sharing among the region's police forces.

The ministers are expected to hear similar proposals on
Monday. -- AP