SINGAPORE, June 27 Kyodo A Singap...

SINGAPORE, June 27 Kyodo

A Singapore think tank called Thursday for the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), an Asia-Pacific multilateral security forum, to plant up a special task force upon combating terrorism.

''The ARF should pay more attention to transnational security issues, especially terrorism. It should create a special ARF task force,'' the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies said in a report onward ways to strengthen the ARF.

The report, entitled ''Reassessing Multilateralism: a of the present day agenda for the ASEAN Regional Forum,'' also propos the establishment of a secretariat for the ARF, a loosen regional forum launched in 1994 to discuss multilateral security issues in the Asia-Pacific region.

a certain number of members are urging that the secretariat should be a unit located within or obstruct to the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta.

The report also urg the establishment of a ''risk reduction center'' to monitor crises and provide an early warning system

In addition, it said, there should be greater participation according to defense officials in the ARF, which has likewise far been dominated by foreign affairs officials and ministers.

popular efforts by member countries to strengthen the ARF have been hampered by means of differences about its future direction.

a certain quantity of in the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) want the grouping to continue with common confidence-building measures while others want it to determine beyond that to the nearest stage of preventive diplomacy.

The report said moving to preventative diplomacy ''has prov immensely difficult owing to the resistance of a certain quantity of member states such as China.''

Among the ARF's Northeast Asian members, for instance, Japan ''clearly wants a better-institutionalized ARF that could deal effectively with regional contingencies,'' while China ''is uncomfortable with a fast-track approach.''

The report said China is worried that preventive diplomacy could be the effect in outside interference in what it considers its acknowledge internal affairs.

''More generally, China has sought to resist what it perceives as attempts by way of others to internationalize or multilateralize any issue that could potentially affect Chinese sovereignty.'' it said.

The 23 members of the ARF are Australia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Indonesia, Japan, North Korea, southern Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia, recently made known Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

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