Many actions of some major powers in their campaign against terrorism violated international law and the norms of civilised conduct, said Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi today.

In fact, he added, they had caused the ranks of international terrorism to swell in the process.

"Unfortunately, instead of tackling the root causes, the actions of some of the big powers have caused alienation in critical segments of the international public," he was quoted as saying by Bernama .

Abdullah was speaking at the opening of the Non-Aligned Movement Coordinating Bureau (NAM-CoB) Ministerial Meeting in Putrajaya.

He said the results in these campaigns had been "patchy at best as the adversaries are as nimble as they are ruthless", and they proved to be elusive and resilient and remained a constant threat to the peace and tranquility of the world.

"I have always maintained that military action alone will never be sufficient to defeat terrorism. Terrorism must not be dealt with in an arbitrary, selective and cavalier manner, but holistically," he added.

In fighting terrorism, Abdullah, who is the NAM chairperson said, all aspects of the problem including the critical issue of root causes must be addressed and be done within the framework of international law without selectivity and double standards.

Cannot remain static

At the same time, he said NAM must change to adjust the need of the new world without having to abandon the fundamental principles of the movement.

He added NAM cannot afford to remain static or reactive and it must be dynamic and move with the times.

"We live in a time of uncertainty and change. New concepts and doctrines have been foisted on us including such notions as humanitarian intervention, responsibility to protect and pre-emptive war, among others.

"All of these pose a challenge to traditionally and universally accepted concepts enshrined in the UN Charter. We should strongly oppose any attempts at eroding them," he said.

The premier noted that NAM must assert its role and use the leverage of its large membership to help refashion the international system that would best protect, preserve and promote its collective interests within the essential framework of multilateralism.

"There is now a tendency to resort to unilateral action in international relations. We have noticed this tendency of working outside the ambit of the UN when the sanction of the security council could not be obtained.

"This trend, if allowed to continue, would undermine the authority of the council and render it irrelevant, along with the rest of the UN membership.

"It is therefore imperative that we oppose such trends and defend the principles enshrined in the UN Charter," he said.

Better impact

While commending the 114-member movement as generally united on broad matters of principles of importance to NAM, he said, the movement was sometimes unable to use its numerical strength to its best advantage.

This, he said, had been a real challenge to the chair of NAM. Malaysia which took over the chair of NAM in 2003 from South Africa, would be passing the baton to Cuba this September.

"We could have made a better impact on the reform and restructuring of the United Nations, on the 2005 Millennium Summit outcome and on the Millennium Declaration but we did less than what we could have done," said Abdullah.

Abdullah also said to maximise its collective potentials, NAM and the G-77 (less developed nations) and China must forge closer cooperation and coordination through a pooling of resources and whenever necessary joint programmes and strategies.

For this purpose, he said more use should be made of the mechanism of the NAM coordinating committee as the movement cannot afford to continue to function disparately to be effective.

And in engaging the North, the Prime Minister said NAM must ensure that the developing countries do not continue to be marginalised.

"Our concerns and our voice on the issues of importance to us must be raised and heard in the councils of the rich and powerful such as the G-8," he stressed.

The Group of Eight (G-8) member nations are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The prime minister also stressed on the need for NAM members to enhance its trade in the context of South-South Cooperation as well as synergise with its partners in the North.

Trade, he said, should be used as a means by which developing countries can escape marginalisation and enter into the mainstream of the international trading system.

"The enhancement of South-South trade is not a pie in the sky but an entirely attainable objective, if we work at it," he added.