PORTO ALEGRE, Jan 29: The second day of the World Social Forum conference began with a peace summit at which speakers stressed the need for peace in the world and war against arms manufacturers, especially in the developed world.

The fifth World Social Forum, which has been dominated with sympathy for the South Asian tsunami victims, emphasized the irony that the governments of the affected region spend over 40 billion dollars on purchase of arms every year. Of this, 60 per cent goes to US arms manufacturers.

The speakers representing a wide range of countries including US, India, Brazil, France and Pakistan maintained that the defence-military complex of US and Europe was responsible for the continued tyrannical regimes in the third world.

They stressed the need for international networking to counter the proliferation of nuclear arms.