U.S. unlikely to have combat role in SE Asia: Adm. Blair

U.S. unlikely to have combat role in SE Asia: Adm. Blair

Agencies, Kuala Lumpur

U.S. military forces were unlikely to have a combat role in fighting terrorist groups in Southeast Asia, but would offer logistical and other support to regional governments that asked for it, the U.S. Pacific commander said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the end of a tour of several Southeast Asian countries, Adm. Dennis Blair, the chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, said U.S. military involvement in Southeast Asia would not resemble its role in Afghanistan, where a U.S.-led bombing campaign has helped force that country's Taliban regime from power.

Afghanistan was "the single country in the world that has been providing a sanctuary for international terrorists ... and receiving assistance from them," Blair told reporters.

"I certainly do not see other Afghanistans in this part of the world. All the countries in this part of the world condemn terrorists and their actions against terrorists are very much cooperative actions," he said.

Blair said that the United Nations needs to have a peacekeeping force ready to move into Afghanistan once Washington achieves it aim of destroying the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.

"I would like it to be imminent," he said of the need to deploy a multinational force to restore stability in a country wracked by civil war and now being pounded by U.S. bombers.

The United States was providing equipment, intelligence and military advisers to the Philippines government to help it deal with the "military problem" of the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group, and stood ready to assist other Southeast Asian countries in fighting terrorism locally.

"The United States will cooperate with those countries that are both willing and able to eliminate the terrorist infrastructure," Blair said. "In those countries which are willing but would like to be more able to conduct those campaigns ... the United States would provide that assistance."

The Abu Sayyaf, which claims to be a Muslim separatist movement but which the Philippines government says is merely a bandit group, has been linked to Osama bin Laden, the suspected mastermind behind the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, who is believed to be in Afghanistan.

Some 7,000 Philippines troops are pursuing the Abu Sayyaf in its jungle stronghold in the southern Philippines, where they hold a number of hostages, including two Americans.

Muslim extremists also allegedly operate in other parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia and Malaysia.

The two predominantly Muslim countries have condemned the Sept. 11 attacks, but have called for an end to the military campaign in Afghanistan. Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said last week that the international fight against terrorism looks increasingly like a war against Islam.

Blair said that rather than combat, the fight against terror in Southeast Asia would involve identifying and nabbing terrorists, denying them funds and sanctuaries and preventing them from traveling between countries.

He said the United States hoped to expand its annual bilateral military exercises with Malaysia to include more countries to help check trans-border movement of terrorists.

Blair, who was in the Philippines last week, said Manila had made it clear that it does not "require or want" U.S. combat troops to join the hunt for the Abu Sayyaf.

After a meeting in Washington on Tuesday, U.S. President George Bush said the United States was prepared to help Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo fight the Abu Sayyaf "in any way she suggests."