U.S., Australia to up terror fight in SE Asia

U.S., Australia to up terror fight in SE Asia

Lawrence Bartlett, Agence France-Presse/Adelaide, Australia

The United States and Australia agreed on Friday to intensify
counter-terrorism efforts in Southeast Asia and boost joint
training for conventional warfare at annual top-level bilateral
security talks.

The two countries also pledged in a joint communique released
after the Australia-U.S. Ministerial Consultations (AUSMIN) to
pursue their efforts to defeat "terrorists and insurgents" in
war-ravaged Iraq.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, his Australian
counterpart Robert Hill, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander
Downer and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick
attended the talks in Adelaide.

A convoy of cars carrying the men from their meeting at the
town hall in this South Australian capital ran the gauntlet of a
small but vocal group of protesters who called them war
criminals.

Scuffles broke out as the demonstrators, who object to
Australia's commitment of troops to the U.S.-led invasion of
Iraq, were held back by lines of police.

At the news conference, Rumsfeld responded angrily to a
question about whether allegations this week that prisoners were
beaten, tortured and starved in a secret prison in Baghdad showed
that the invasion had changed nothing.

"Anytime anyone is mistreated it is damaging and unfortunate
and wrong," he said. "I don't know the facts. What we do know is
the situation is being investigated by the Iraqi government.

"We're cooperating with them to determine what actually took
place."

The joint communique said: "Both sides reaffirmed the critical
importance of supporting the efforts of the region's governments
to defeat terrorism in Southeast Asia.

"They agreed to intensify and coordinate closely their
respective efforts to assist countries in the region in this
endeavor, building on the progress already achieved in working
with partners like Indonesia and the Philippines."

Downer later told a news conference that Australia and the
U.S. were "impressed" by Indonesia's recent achievements in
countering terrorism.

Indonesia last week hunted down and killed one of the region's
most wanted men, Malaysian bombmaker Azahari Husin, who had been
blamed for a string of deadly attacks including the Bali bombings
in 2002 and 2005.

Indonesian courts have also convicted and sentenced several
alleged members of the al-Qaeda-linked Jamaah Islamiyah group for
their role in the first Bali bombings, which killed 202 people,
including 88 Australians.

The statement gave no details of the new measures to combat
terrorism, saying only that they "emphasized the importance of
encouraging governments and institutions that promote tolerance
and work to counter extremism".

It said both countries "welcomed Japan's increasing
contribution to regional security and agreed on the importance of
greater trilateral cooperation", pledging three-way talks "at an
early opportunity".

Australian Prime Minister John Howard is a close ally of U.S.
President George W. Bush, contributing troops to campaigns in
Afghanistan and Iraq, and the two sides "reaffirmed their
commitment to defeating the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq".

They also announced a program of U.S. strategic bomber
training in Australia as "part of their commitment to enhance
combined training and exercising".