NY hosts war on terror summit

Riyadh bombing, May 2003: Terror attacks show no sign of abating

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has warned a summit of world leaders that the war on terrorism cannot be won by military force alone.

"To fight terrorism, we must not only fight terrorists. We have to win hearts and minds," Mr Annan said in an opening address to more than 15 heads of state and government meeting in New York to discuss the root causes of terrorism.

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel are co-hosting the event, which is focusing on how poverty and political grievances are exploited by terrorists.

US President George W Bush turned down an invitation to the meeting, which will also consider alternatives to American leadership of the anti-terror campaign.

Roots of terrorism can include political grievances, a sense of humiliation, lack of hope and repression of human rights Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik

Among those attending the meeting were French President Jacques Chirac, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf and Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well as Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

There are also representatives of Israel and the Palestinians.

In his speech, Mr Annan said it was just a mistake to believe terrorism was not related to political and social factors.

"We also delude ourselves if we think military force alone can defeat terrorism. It may sometimes be necessary... but we need to do much more than that," he said.

After the opening speeches, the summit heard testimony from survivors of the 11 September attacks and of victims of the Bali night club bombings as well as of attacks by the Basque separatist group ETA in Spain.

Two years on from the 11 September attacks some progress has been made, including arrests, but terror attacks are still commonplace and show no sign of abating, the BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner says.

UN role

Monday's conference was to discuss the findings of experts who met in June in Oslo on outlining the root causes of terrorism.

They found there was only a weak and indirect relationship between poverty and terrorism, and that state sponsorship is not a "root cause" of terrorism.

More important factors included a lack of democracy, failed or weak states, rapid modernisation, extreme ideologies, political violence, inequality, corrupt governments, repression and discrimination.

Mr Bondevik called for the UN to take the central role in the fight against terror, and said it was important the campaign should not be used as an excuse to violate human rights.

He said it was essential to tackle the political grievances and oppression that help fuel terrorism.

"We have not only to use military, police and judicial measures in order to fight terrorism, but also try to find out why some people believe they can justify random killings and suicide bombings, and what it is in an individual's development that motivates such acts," he told the BBC's World Today programme.

The terror conference, which is being held at a hotel near the UN, is running alongside a high-level meeting tackling Aids. The two meetings are being held on the eve of the annual UN General Assembly.