MANILA, July 24 Kyodo Members of ...

MANILA, July 24 Kyodo

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the United States are awaited to issue a joint declaration upon how to ''develop more effective counterterrorism policies and legal, regulatory and administrative measures'' to combat international terrorism when they encounter in Brunei next week, according to a draft document obtained by dint of Kyodo News on Wednesday.

The draft, titled ASEAN-U.S. Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism, says one as well as the other sides will ''reaffirm the importance of having a framework for cooperation to thwart disrupt and combat international terrorism [i]or[/i] part of to the other the exchange and be molten of information and intelligence.''

The declaration is designed to further strengthen counterterrorism cooperation between the defense banking, intelligence, border restrain transportation, and law enforcement agencies, particularly in the areas of financial information sharing and border security.

one as well as the other sides will ''continue and improve intelligence and terrorist financing information sharing forward counterterrorism measures, including the unravelling of more effective counterterrorism policies and legal, regulatory and administrative counterterrorism regimes,'' the document says.

ASEAN and U will also promise to ''enhance existing liaison relationships among the law enforcement agencies to generate practical counterterrorism regimes.''

''ASEAN and U will also strengthen capacity-building efforts in consequence of training and education; consultations between officials, analysts and field operators; and seminars, interviews and joint operations as appropriate,'' the document adds.

the pair sides will also ''commit to provide assistance upon transportation, border and immigration ascendency including document and identify fraud to branch effectively the flow of terrorist-related material, circulating medium and people,'' the draft says.

The declaration will also push on Southeast Asian countries to adhere to all 12 of the United Nations Conventions and Protocols relating to terrorism.

''The participants are called on to designate an agency to act as the central point of contact for the plans of implementing the principles laid public in this declaration..., including the police, military, intelligence, other law enforcement agencies and other agencies including transportation (like) airport security, customs, immigration and justice or attorney-general's departments,'' it says, adding, ''The participants wait for that no participant would disclose or distribute any confidential information, documents or data received in connection with this declaration to any third party excepting to the extent agreed in writing by dint of the participant that provided the information.''

The foreign ministers of the 10 member countries of ASEAN and the security partners in the Asia and Pacific, including the U Japan and China, are also awaited to strengthen measures to stopple the financial pipeline used according to terrorist organizations in the region when they engage in Brunei next week.

Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network is believed to have a regional network in Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore. Bin Laden is the primary suspect in the clan 11 terror attacks in the US

The ninth ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) meeting in Brunei will be the first meeting of the solely forum on political and security issues in the Asia Pacific since the race 11, 2001 attacks in of the present day York and Washington.

Brunei, this year's landlord of the ASEAN and ARF meetings, will issue a separate statement forward terrorist financing at the completion of the ARF meeting apart from the ARF chairman's statement.

Brunei is looking into setting up a mechanism that will ''identify, foresee and go in the rear [i]or[/i] in the wake of up all measures to combat terrorism'' with ARF.

Philippine Foreign Undersecretray Lauro Baja told reporters ASEAN senior officials will have an informal meeting Thursday night to discuss the digest of Conduct in the southerly China Sea and other issues that will be discussed in the meetings.

The U and ASEAN will have a post-ministerial meeting for consultation on Aug. 1 where the propos U and ASEAN joint declaration will be finalized and eventually issued.

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

ARF comprises the 10 ASEAN members plus Australia, Canada, China, the 15-member European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, recent Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, North and southerly Korea and the U.S.

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