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.