BUCHAREST (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Romanian President Ion Iliescu urged OSCE foreign ministers on Monday to pay more attention to the role played by poverty in fomenting international terrorism.
Opening a summit of foreign ministers of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Bucharest, he said the September 11 attacks in the United States had pushed terrorism to the top of the organization's agenda.
Iliescu, whose country holds the OSCE chairmanship this year, said the security and human rights body needed to devote more energy to economic and environmental issues.
The two-day summit was expected to be dominated by the issue of terrorism and to produce a strong consensus of support for a ``Bucharest Plan of Action for Combating Terrorism.''
It opened in the shadow of weekend Palestinian Resistancre attacks in Israel which killed 25 people in less than 12 hours.
Although not an OSCE member, Israel has formal ties to the organization through its Mediterranean cooperation programme.
The summit was expected to cement a new strategic alliance between Washington and Moscow since the September 11 attacks.
Last year's summit in Vienna flopped due to Russian objections to language on its war in Chechnya, preventing agreement on a final declaration.
A preliminary draft of this year's final declaration, obtained by Reuters, showed a new unity.
``Terrorism, whatever its motivation or origin, has no justification,'' the draft declaration says. ``No cause can justify the purposeful targeting of innocent people. In the fight against terrorism, there is no neutrality.''
The action plan will include a commitment by participating states to work more effectively to prevent the movement of terrorists and ensure ``the timely detention and prosecution or extradition of persons charged with terrorist acts.''
The OSCE comprises the U.S., Canada, all of Europe and the former Soviet republics in central Asia.