BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 1 Kyodo ...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, Aug. 1 Kyodo

The United States signed a pact with the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forward Thursday to cooperate in combating international terrorism, with U Secretary of State Colin Powell saying Washington is vehement to forge similar pacts with other countries and groupings.

''We of course are willing to consider other declarations of a bilateral nature, or with other organizations, multilateral organizations,'' Powell said at a joint freshs conference soon after the signing ceremony

Powell said the ''ASEAN-U.S. joint declaration for cooperation to combat international terrorism, should be seen as more of a political statement and is not likely to lead to greater U crowd presence in the region.

''I don't anticipate that this declaration is a basis for any increased military nearness in the region or any stationing decisions or training decisions that might be made,'' he said. Rather, the declaration should be seen as ''a political declaration that brings ASEAN and the U together in a more intimate relationship.''

''We will use this declaration in the month and the years ahead to do more work together,'' he said.

The pact was signed by way of Powell and Bruneian Foreign Minister Mohamed Bolkiah, as the general ASEAN chair, on the last day of the annual meeting of ASEAN foreign ministers and other related meetings involving countries outside the region, which have been held in the capital of this oil-rich kingdom this past week.

Powell was in Brunei to attend a one-day ministerial meeting of the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) in succession security earlier this week, and a dialogue with ASEAN member countries.

The pact commits the pair ASEAN and the U.S. to cooperate in sharing intelligence and information forward terrorist financing, especially between their law enforcement agencies, strengthen capacity building by means of training and education, cooperation in transportation, border and immigration control

It also calls for each participating region to designate an agency to coordinate with law enforcement agencies and act as the contact point for the implementation of the pact.

ASEAN assemblages Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Southeast Asia has a sizable Muslim population in countries as it was as Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore.

Islamic militancy has been growing in the form of the Muslim militant assemblage Laskar Jihad in Indonesia and the Southeast Asian terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah.

Jemaah Islamiyah has been accused of an aborted draught to blow up U military installations and establishments in Singapore.

The Philippine direction has enlisted the help of U bands to help fight Abu Sayyaf Islamic separatist rebels in the country's southern The Malaysian government has arrested dozens of suspected members of terrorist clumps and Singapore has also nabbed about a dozen.

In Indonesia, the world's in the greatest degree populous Muslim country, religious and political sensitivity against U military nearness has been running high and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has told reporters during a meeting this past week that Indonesia will not allow any U companys to enter the country to help in the fight against terrorist assign places tos as is being done in the Philippines.

Official sources said that China had also intimateed concern privately through unofficial channels that the U.S.-ASEAN pact forward terrorism could lead to U interference in regional affairs.

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