KUALA LUMPUR - The 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) ran into trouble Saturday in its attempts to formulate a united stand o­n the crises in Iraq and North Korea, which are both members, and agree o­n a definition of terrorism.

Senior officials failed to thrash out common positions in two days of talks and dumped the problems o­nto a meeting of foreign ministers who have to finalise statements o­n the issues ahead of a summit of leaders Monday and Tuesday.

On Iraq, some states including Singapore held out o­n agreeing to wording strongly critical of the United States until they had consulted their capitals.

A draft resolution presented by Arab member states wants the NAM to "categorically reject the threats of unilateral use of force" and express "support and solidarity with Iraq vis-a-vis the possible aggression against it".

But Iraq failed in a bid to get endorsement for a controversial call by Arab League foreign ministers for Arab countries not to provide facilities or logistics to US troops .

Stiff resistance

Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri said, however, he was confident that the NAM, representing more than half the global population, would show the US that the whole world was "against their war policy, their colonial policy".

On North Korea, an attempt by Pyongyang to blame the crisis over its nuclear weapons programme o­n the United States met stiff resistance, with several member states pressing the Stalinist regime to instead reverse its decision to quit the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Syria, however, backed the isolated state, with a delegate telling AFP : "We support North Korea because we think the US is playing a double standard game. It wants to disarm Iraq but ignores Israel's weapons of mass destruction."

On terrorism, animosity between India and Pakistan was said to be a major stumbling block to presenting a united front, with the two nuclear-armed neighbours bringing their dispute over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir to the confernce.

New Delhi has proposed a phrase referring to the rejection of "state-sponsored terrorism", an apparent reference to its charge that Islamabad supports Kashmiri separatists.

Pakistan, for its part, wants to reject "recent attempts to equate freedom movements for the right of self-determination" with terrorism.

Brink of conflict

Despite the disputes, delegates say they expect a strong statement against any unilateral US attack o­n Iraq.

Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told the opening session of the foreign ministers' meeting that a world dominated by just o­ne superpower "is pervaded by a profound sense of unease and uncertainty about the future.

"Today this state of affairs brings us to the brink of conflict - a conflict which the peoples of the world have loudly and clearly opposed," he said.

The fact that "the collective voice of the global majority that says no to war can be ignored' suggests that the world is no better now than it was when the NAM was founded as an alternative to the Eastern and Western power blocs during the Cold War.

"The present international order also threatens to push aside multilateral diplomacy and allow unilateral pre-emption to determine the security of the world," calling into question the credibility of the United Nations, Abdullah said.

Malaysia is the incoming chairman of the movement, taking over from South Africa. Abdullah will lead the NAM after Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad retires in October.

The organisation groups mainly developing countries from Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. - AFP