KUALA LUMPUR April 28 Kyodo Senio...

KUALA LUMPUR April 28 Kyodo

Senior defense officials from Australia, Britain, Malaysia, modern Zealand and Singapore agreed Monday to strengthen cooperation to combat terrorism.

The officials held their biennial meeting in the Malaysian capital in a less degree than a 32-year-old regional security pact known as the Five Power Defense Arrangement or FPDA.

''One of the things we agreed is to have joint cooperation and exchange of intelligence,'' Malaysian Armed Forces Chief Mohamed Zahidi Zainuddin told reporters at the extreme point of the meeting.

They also discussed the setting up of a U.S.-sponsored Southeast Asia counterterrorism center in Kuala Lumpur which Zahidi said would be headed through a Malaysian Foreign Ministry official.

The center was disputeed during U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's visit to the region last year after authorities lay bareed a Southeast Asian Islamic militant network known as the Jemaah Islamiyah that they say has links with the al-Qaida.

Malaysia and Singapore have arrested scores of alleged terrorists belonging to the dispose believed to be headed by dint of Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, popularly standing trial in Jakarta in succession treason and other charges.

Zahidi said the meeting also touched in succession the nuclear standoff between North Korea and the U He declined to elaborate omit to say, ''We are transactioned about developments on the Korean Peninsula.''

The armed forces of the five countries have agreed to retain their annual military exercise from June 20 to July 5 in the southward China Sea.

In a pres statement, the defense chiefs said, ''The FPDA remains relevant and acts as the bulwark for the defense of Singapore and Malaysia. They further reaffirmed their support for the FPDA and confirmed it as a serviceable security and confidence building measure.''

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