MADRID, Jan 16: A new UN forum wound up Tuesday with initiatives to combat intolerance between different cultures, but the non-participation of the United States came in for criticism from Iran.

Representatives from 63 countries attended the two-day Alliance of Civilisations intended to bridge the divide between the western and Arab-Islamic peoples in the wake of Sept 11 and other terror attacks.

More than 80 countries and organisations listed as official “friends” of the Alliance. But they do not include the United States and Israel.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri charged Washington had much to learn from the Forum.

The Alliance of Civilisations is “quite the opposite of what (George) Bush wants at world level,” he told a news conference on the sidelines of the forum on Wednesday. It is “an open dialogue. It’s a reasonable rational dialogue to create well-being. Mr Bush does not really understand the reasoning behind this.

“The message from this conference is that Bush ... should feel himself to be just another member of the international community.” The forum was the brainchild of Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who proposed it at the UN General Assembly in September 2004, six months after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people.

Tuesday, he said the summit was aimed he said at “isolating extremist and intolerant discourses on the part of those who try to utilise religion or culture for political purposes.” Among the 350 participants were Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a co-sponsor along with Zapatero, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, and former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio, the UN high representative for the Alliance of Civilisations.

Wednesday, the delegates held closed-door working sessions before a final press conference scheduled for 1300 GMT.

On Tuesday, Queen Noor of Jordan unveiled a $100 million fund to finance major film productions that promote cross-cultural understanding counter stereotypes.

The fund will “support the production and distribution of films that entertain as well as enlighten — films that will enhance the connections that already exist between different societies, but are seldom noted on screen and in popular culture,” she said.

The fund has an initial investment of $10 million, and has established partnerships with Hollywood production and distribution companies, including Participant Productions, which was behind the film “Syriana” starring George Clooney.

Another initiative is a Rapid Response Media Mechanism, aimed at reducing tensions in times of cross-cultural crises.

“If a new crisis erupts on this front, a rapid response mechanism will furnish voices of reason to reporters and producers around the world,” said Ban.

Other participants at the forum’s plenary sessions included Turkey’s Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa and the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.—AFP