One hundred and fourteen nations begin a conference in Kuala Lumpur tomorrow, preparing to deliver a resounding 'No' to a US-led war o­n Iraq.

Most of the countries grouped in the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) carry little clout of their own, but they hope their official voices will be heard alongside those of millions of ordinary people protesting the war around the world.

The NAM states are mostly poor and militarily weak, although two of them India and Pakistan are nuclear powers and another, North Korea, is believed to be able to produce nuclear weapons within months, if it doesn't have them already.

The others range from Afghanistan, with its new government installed courtesy of a US-led war, to Iraq itself, Washington's latest target in its military reaction to the Sept 11 terrorist attacks o­n the US.

In fact, the whole of George Bush's renowned "Axis of Evil" will be represented Iran, Iraq and North Korea.

Moral grounds

Long-time foe from ideological battles past, Fidel Castro of Cuba, will also be there when the summit gets under way o­n Monday and Tuesday next week, after kicking off with meetings of senior officials and ministers beginning Thursday.

But most of the 114 nations are small players o­n the world stage, struggling countries o­n the fringes of power in Asia, Africa and Latin America.

Recognising this, the host prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, said in a television interview ahead of the conference: "We have no military and financial strength but we can join the world movement to oppose war o­n moral grounds."

Mahathir acknowledged that the big powers rarely listened to the voice of NAM, but said they would now be forced to do so after millions of people many in developed countries took to the streets last weekend in anti-war protests.

He said o­ne focus of the summit would be to drive home the point that big countries should not resort to military action to change a government they did not like.

"We do not agree that the government of a country not suitable to big countries be changed by military means through a pre-emptive strike. If this thing is allowed to happen, maybe other countries will also suffer the same fate in the future," he said.

Informal meet

However, it is not o­nly a fear of the world being reshaped to its liking by the lone superpower that galvanises the incoming leader of the NAM, which was originally formed during the Cold War as an alternative to the Western and Eastern power blocs.

Mahathir is a bitter critic of Islamic extremism and has supported the US-led war o­n terrorism, but he has warned repeatedly that an attack o­n Iraq would create more anger among Muslims and thus more recruits to terrorist ranks.

He made it clear that despite the myriad problems facing the developing world, such as globalisation, debt and HIV/Aids, Iraq would dominate discussions at the NAM meeting.

While there will be some support for Washington, from countries such as the Philippines where US troops are helping the fight against Islamic guerrillas, Mahathir had no hesitation in predicting the outcome of the debate.

Asked what would be contained in the summit's final declaration, he replied: "Certainly it is about our anti-war stand."

That stand will likely be endorsed by a second meeting immediately after the NAM summit. Malaysia has called an "informal" meeting of members of the 57-nation Organisation of the Islamic Conference, most of which are also NAM states, for Feb 26. AFP