Southeast Asian security ministers began a two-day session today aimed towards expanding cooperation in the war against terrorism, but set aside the contentious issue of defining the scourge.

Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is chairing the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) home (interior) ministers' talks, said it was tough to get a common definition as Asean was "not in one mind on certain issues."

"I did bring up the subject of legislation. What to one country is terrorism may not be to another. This may present some difficulties, even obstacles to bringing about an Asean-wide cooperation that we would like to have," he told reporters.

But Abdullah, who is also home minister, said this was not a major impediment as all 10 Asean members were committed to fighting terrorism.

"I don't think at the moment it is completely prohibitive to effective Asean cooperation," he said.

"We should not be distracted by the need to have a common definition but we should be focused on the need to have a common program of action.

"As we begin to expand our areas of cooperation, our areas of concern and begin to realise what are the forms of terrorism, maybe we will get closer to defining terrorism."

Boosting enforcement

Host Malaysia has sought to obtain an Asean definition of terrorism to boost enforcement in the region but senior officials at a preparatory meeting Saturday failed to agree on the matter.

Singapore and the Philippines, both close allies of the United States, reportedly objected as they feared an Asean definition would make it cumbersome for them to act against new forms of terrorism, officials and reports said.

But Philippines Interior Secretary Jose Lina denied Monday that Manila had objected.

"We did not offer any resistance to the Malaysian proposal," he told reporters. "There are some grey areas that have to be clarified and it's not easy to come up with a common definition."

Earlier, Abdullah in his opening speech urged Asean not to let its failure to agree on a definition to derail efforts to fight terror.

"The fight against terror is a long, drawn out war against an unseen enemy. We are fighting a war of attrition in the dark," he said.

"It is therefore imperative that we move in a coordinated manner where sharing rather than secrecy, and regional stability rather than national interests, were paramount concerns."

Abdullah blamed a "politics of language" for the global stalemate in defining terrorism, saying some countries disagreed on including freedom fighters and state terrorism which would implicate Israel.

He reiterated Malaysia's stand that "armed and other forms of attacks against civilians" by any individual, group or state should be regarded as terrorism, including those by Palestinian suicide bombers.

Franchised terror operatives

Abdullah said there were Islamic groups out to create a "regional cellular structure with franchised terror operatives and groups stationed in different countries" within Asean.

He urged Asean to step up efforts to cripple the terrorists' financial network by freezing assets, condemn countries that sponsor terror and implement laws to halt the proliferation of cybercrimes and bioterrorism.

"We must be uncompromising with such groups and ensure that they are permanently crippled, lest they are resurrected to poison the minds of our people again."

Apart from developing a modus operandi to fight terrorism, he said Asean must aim to debilitate terror support structures, resolve discontentment among its people and promote better cooperation in early detection.

He cited Palestinian-Israel tension as a root cause of terrorism and said it must be resolved to ease Muslim anger.