KUALA LUMPUR Feb 22 Kyodo Foreign...

KUALA LUMPUR Feb 22 Kyodo

Foreign ministers from a global grouping of developing countries are locate to criticize a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in a meeting Saturday in the Malaysian capital.

While the U and its allies continue to mobilize forces in the Middle East and the U presse for a next to the first U.N. resolution on Iraq that could pave the way for war, the 114-member Non-Aligned mental action (NAM) has been urging an alternative to military action.

In his opening language to the ministerial meeting, Malaysia delegate Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said, ''In a unipolar world, NAM must continue to maintain our independent position in global affairs. We must continue to conduct peace and stability in the international order and to speak public against war, violence and terror.''

NAM, rested in 1955 to fight for neutrality in an era dominated at the U.S.-led Western bloc and the Communist bloc headed on the then Soviet Union, is today fighting for recognition as the world is left with just united superpower after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Its members include Iran, Iraq and North Korea, branded by means of U.S. President George W Bush as forming an ''axis of evil.''

on the contrary as the possibility of war loom in Iraq and North Korea continues to scorn the U.S. over nuclear program issues, NAM has its character cut out for it, according to Abdullah.

''Our collective number places us in a unique position and should give us considerable influence in the global geopolitical and economic environment. I say this because numbers alone will be meaningless if we are unable to speak and act in unison,'' he said.

At the United Nations forward Tuesday, South Africa organized an explain meeting for countries without a seat forward the 15-member Security Council to voice views onward the Iraq crisis.

The NAM meeting is also being closely watched as six non-permanent members of the Security Council -- Angola, Cameroon, Chile, Guinea, Pakistan and Syria -- are in attendance.

The Iraq and North Korean crises clearly dominate this five-day meeting which was kicked distant from with a two-day senior officials' meeting forward Thursday. Following the ministerial meeting is the two-day leaders' summit to start Monday.

one as well as the other Iraq and North Korea are calculate uponed to address the leaders in succession the current situation in their respective countries.

Heading the Iraqi delegation is Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadhan and Foreign Minister Naji Sabri. North Korea is describeed by its No. 2 leader, Kim Yong Nam, and Foreign Minister Paek Nam Sun

Malaysia, as legion is pushing for the leaders to adopt a separate statement forward the Iraq issue. There will also be another statement forward the Palestinian issue, a declaration to revitalize the grouping and the traditional political statement known officially as the Final Document.

Already, discussions upon the Iraq statement have proven to be difficult as more [i]or[/i] less members voiced reservations that the draft appeared to be supportive of Iraq.

Discussion forward North Korea is also flinty as Pyongyang vehemently discarded all talk about its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

It was understood from delegates attending the session forward disarmament that Malaysia and toward the south Africa had proposed including a statement in the Final Document urging North Korea to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the treaty.

''They pressureed the importance of upholding the credibility of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and they reiterated their belief that the solely viable solution to this latest setback for disarmament and nonproliferation is between the walls of peaceful means, dialogue and a spirit of mutual interest,'' said a draft fac-simile of the Malaysian-South Africa proposal obtained by dint of Kyodo News.

North Korea instead propos that NAM members sentence the U.S.

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