SYDNEY, Aug 14: Army chiefs from 19 countries, including the United States, Japan and India, met secretly in Sydney ahead of an Asia-Pacific summit in the city next month, the country's army chief revealed on Tuesday.

The presence of the military leaders in Sydney, including US Gen George Casey, at the same time and at the same venue last week was considered too risky to publicise, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.

Australia's Chief of Army, Lieutenant Gen Peter Leahy, told the ABC it had been judged better not to disclose the meeting, the fifth Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference, at the time.“We were aware that there's a lot going on in Sydney and we didn't want to make a fuss,” Leahy said, in a reference to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in the city on Sept 8-9.

The summit will be attended by leaders of the 21 members of APEC, including the US, Russia, China and Japan, and Australia is preparing unprecedented security measures to protect them.

But Leahy said the security of the summit was not a particular item on the agenda of the army chiefs' meeting.

“No, it was an internal conference and we were just sitting around in one of the nice hotels in Sydney, discussing issues,” he said.

The officers had discussed some of the challenges facing modern armies, such as how to prepare for disaster relief, peacekeeping and counter-terrorism operations, he said.

“What we've all agreed is that we need to look at the methods of education and how we prepare our individuals for the uncertainty of these complex environments that we're headed into,” he said.

“And I think you'll see more cooperation into the different armies to make sure that our soldiers are more culturally aware, linguistically attuned and able to deal in these very complex environments.”

The heads of army who attended the conference were from Australia, the United States, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, India, Japan, South Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, New Zealand, Philip-pines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tonga, and Vietnam.

The fourth Pacific Armies Chiefs Conference was held in Thailand in August 2005.—AFP