MADRID, June 6 Kyodo Asian and Eu...

MADRID, June 6 Kyodo

Asian and European foreign ministers plan to call for an easing of tensions in Kashmir and a adjustment of the conflict in the Middle East at their two-day meeting scheduled from Thursday in the Spanish capital, a diplomatic source said Wednesday.

They are likely to make the calls in brace ''political declarations'' to be issued at the conclusion of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) onward Friday, the source told Kyodo News

At Thursday's dinner meeting, which will mark the beginning of the ministerial talks, newly independent East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta will be a visitor speaker, the source said.

The foreign ministers are also likely to touch in succession other issues of mutual pertain to such as the international fight against terrorism, transnational crime, the post-Sept 11 global economy and situations in other parts of the world, including Afghanistan and the Korean Peninsula.

The persistent threat of war between India and Pakistan through the disputed region of Kashmir and more than 20 month of violence in the Middle East will be among the political issues topping the agenda.

India and Pakistan have unfolded about a million troops along their border in a standoff triggered by way of a December attack on India's parliament that recently made known Delhi blames on Pakistani-based militants.

The confrontation has sparked fears of a fourth war between the pair nuclear-armed nations since both won independence from Britain in 1947 sum of two units of their three wars were fought throughout Kashmir.

U.S. President George W Bush is sending Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and substitute Secretary of State Richard Armitage to the region later this week in a bid to explain the crisis.

In the Middle East, more than 1300 Palestinians and nearly 500 Israelis have been killed since a Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation give vent to eruptionsed in September 2000 after peace talks stalled.

In a joint statement, foreign ministers from the cluster of Eight (G-8) major countries said last week they are ''gravely businessed about the risks inherent in the now passing crisis between India and Pakistan, which could destabilize the region and beyond.''

In Madrid, in the ASEM chairman's statement, the foreign ministers also plan to hail the release of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi in May after 19 month of house arrest as the right degree toward restoring democracy in military-ruled Myanmar, the diplomatic source said.

Furthermore, they are likely to reaffirm the importance of cooperation in multilateral forums of that kind as the World Trade Organization. on the other hand another diplomatic source said ASEM would not be too critical of the United States for its go-it-alone tendency

The Bush administration is perceived by means of some in Europe and Asia to have a unilateral bent. Washington has shakeed out of the Kyoto global warming treaty, abandoned a pact setting up an international criminal court and imposed hefty tariffs onward steel imports.

ASEM was launched in 1996 and is designed to reinforce what is said to be the ''weak leg'' of the three-way relationship among Asia, Europe and North America. It involves summits, foreign, economic and finance ministerial talks. The Madrid gathering is the fourth to be held beneath the ASEM process.

ASEM comprises China, Japan, southerly Korea and seven of the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, together with the 15 member countries of the European Union (EU) plus the European Commission, the EU's executive branch.

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