Blair wants clear, unified message against terror

NEW DELHI, Thursday (AFP) British Prime Minister Tony Blair, warming up for next week's summit of world leaders at the United Nations in New York, called Wednesday for the world to confront incitement to terrorism as firmly as it does terrorism itself.

"It is time we sent out a clear and unified message from the international community and said that (inciting and supporting terrorism) is no longer legitimate," said Blair in New Delhi at an annual summit of European Union and Indian leaders.

"That is not something that can have any hiding place in respectable opinion and I think that is a necessary thing for us to say."

Officials travelling with Blair confirmed that British diplomats tabled a new resolution Monday at the UN Security Council committing nations to confront incitement as firmly as they do terrorism itself.

The proposal - ahead of the World Summit on September 14-16 at UN headquarters - dovetails with Blair's own attempts, in the wake of the London bombings in July, to make it illegal in Britain for Islamists who voice sympathy with those who carry out attacks.

The Independent newspaper in London reported Wednesday that Blair won full support from China, which like Britain is a permanent member of the UN Security Council, for the resolution when he visited Beijing earlier this week.

Blair told reporters later Wednesday that Britain was aiming to have the resolution set for a vote by the middle of next week.

"We're still discussing the terms of it," he said, "but I think there's a broad degree of support, because virtually every country in the world suffers from this.

"What it will do is send a very strong signal, and it will strengthen the leadership of countries like Pakistan who are taking tough action now to deal with the roots of the problem," he said, referring to madrassas, the unregulated Islamic schools in Pakistan that are hotbeds of militancy.

Fighting terrorism was one of the key points of a 19-page "action plan" agreed Wednesday that sets out a to-do list for bolstering the full gamut of relations between India and the 25-nation European Union.

Blair led the European side to the day-long EU-India summit as part of Britain's turn at the rotating EU presidency.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed support for Blair's position on terrorism, saying: "It is a struggle for the minds of the people... No cause justifies recourse to terrorism."

India regularly accuses neighbouring Pakistan of harbouring militants fighting New Delhi's rule in Indian Kashmir. Pakistan denies the charge, saying it gives only moral support to what it calls a "legitimate freedom struggle" in Indian Kashmir.

While the EU-India action plan stressed on its first page "the essential role of the United Nations," it stopped well short of endorsing India's demands for a permanent seat in a reformed UN Security Council.

Brazil, Germany, Japan and India are together demanding permanent places on the council - and the power of veto that such positions would entail - but they are being opposed by China and the United States.

Blair said: "If we want effective (international) institutions, then those effective international institutions have to take into account of the world today and not the world that was."

"That's why it's important, I think, that as long as it takes - and maybe it's not possible to reach consensus at the moment - that there is a reform of the Security Council at some stage."

Singh said it was "a fact" that India's UN bid was facing opposition, but added: "We haven't given up and I sincerely hope we can still sort out this issue."