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