KUALA LUMPUR - Kings, sheikhs and presidents from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Latin America converged o­n the Malaysian capital today in an attempt to make their voices heard in a world where the lone superpower appears headed towards war.

The members of the 114-nation Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) are mostly developing countries with little clout of their own, which is why the movement was formed as an alternative to the US and Soviet superpower blocs during the Cold War.

NAM has been seen as increasingly irrelevant since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but with all three points in US President George W. Bush's "axis of evil" - Iran, Iraq and North Korea - holding membership, the summit has taken o­n an added significance.

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

Collective voice

"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 during the nuclear stand-off between East and West, he said.

The threat of an invasion of Iraq tops an agenda which includes the crisis over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and international terrorism in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks o­n Washington and New York.

But the traditional concern of the organisation, the gulf between rich and poor, pervades the 76-page draft of the final document to be presented by heads of government when the summit ends o­n Tuesday.

Members include some of the world's poorest countries, and the document is more concerned with what o­ne delegate called the "axis of affluence" - New York, London, Tokyo and other developed capitals - than the "axis of evil".

Right to development

Their problems include poverty, AIDS and the fact that they are falling ever further behind in a rapidly developing world. Resolutions dealing with human rights invariably insist that o­ne of the most important is the "right to development".

It is o­ne point of agreement in such a vast and culturally diverse organisation, which represents countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe, taking in Cuba, Saudi Arabia, India and Pakistan along the way.

Another is the perennial call for a "culture of peace" in the world and, in the latest document, "dialogue among civilisations", a reference to the perceived anti-Muslim bias of the developed world in the face of escalating

international terrorism.

NAM, which represents two thirds of the membership of the United Nations, has also managed to agree a statement o­n Iraq, which will be presented at the end of the summit o­n Tuesday.

It says war will "be a destabilising factor for the whole region, and would have far reaching political economic and humanitarian consequences for all countries of the world."

It opposes "unilateral actions" by the United States and reaffirms "the central role of the United Nations and the Security Council in maintaining international peace and security." - AFP