BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 28: An anti-terrorism pact to be signed by the United States and 10 Southeast Asian nations allows for greater cooperation in counter-terrorism measures, but stops short of providing for US troop deployment in the region, an ASEAN foreign minister said Sunday.

The deployment of US forces “is not part of the framework” and will be an individual choice for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members, Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar said.

US and ASEAN foreign ministers are expected to sign the “Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat International Terrorism” following regional security talks in Brunei this week.

A draft document was settled over the weekend after taking into account concerns of Indonesia and Vietnam on the role of the United Nations and interference in domestic affairs.

Syed Hamid said the declaration is not as detailed as an anti-terrorism accord Washington signed with Kuala Lumpur in May.

“Ours is more detailed. The one here is in general terms and (has) nothing to do with putting in troops. There will not be military participation, but it is more of cooperation to establish efforts to combat terrorism,” he told reporters.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said the deployment of US troops was “not discussed as an option at all” in the ASEAN document.

The latest draft of the joint declaration obtained by AFP incorporated new paragraphs to appease the concerns of Vietnam, where US troops lost a bloody anti-communist war in the 1970s, and predominantly Muslim Indonesia.

The document, hammered out by senior officials, will be discussed by the ASEAN foreign ministers during their meetings Monday and Tuesday and then presented to the United States.

If agreed, the document would be signed with US Secretary of State Colin Powell, who will attend the security forum later in the week.

“Terrorism, as you know, is the centre of our agenda at this meeting,” a US State Department spokesman who arrived in Brunei ahead of Powell, told AFP.

“We want cooperation ... We want all these countries to cooperate on fighting terrorism.”

ASEAN said the pact would boost efforts to fight terrorism in the region, where Islamic militant groups have emerged as key security threats, and would show the world that Washington has roped in Southeast Asia in the global fight against the problem.

“We are all collaborating to ensure there are close working relations in trying to combat international terrorism in all its dimensions,” Syed Hamid said.

“The US has the... ability to provide the necessary support and umbrella, but at the same time they cannot work independently or alone.”

According to the draft dated July 27, the ministers would affirm that in fighting terrorism at the global level, “the United Nations should play a major role.”

The paragraph is understood to have been proposed by Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s biggest country and the world’s largest Muslim nation, which is battling threats of separatism and Islamic extremism.

America’s allies have also accused Washington of taking unilateral actions in the anti-terror fight with little regard to their concerns.

In the document, terrorism will be viewed “in all its forms and manifestations, committed wherever, whenever and by whomsoever” in an apparent effort to remove the impression that only Islamic militants commit acts of terror.

The ministers also recognised “the principles of sovereign equality, territorial integrity and non-intervention in the domestic affairs of other states,” acknowledging the concerns of communist-ruled Vietnam.

Other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore and Thailand.

The joint declaration should serve as a “framework for cooperation to prevent, disrupt and combat international terrorism through the exchange and flow of information and intelligence.”

“The participants emphasize that the purpose of this cooperation is to enhance the efficacy of those efforts to combat terrorism,” the draft said.

It listed several areas of cooperation, including intelligence exchange on terrorist financing, the development of counter-terrorism policies and compliance to UN resolutions.—AFP