Peru Summit Closes with Vows on Terror, Argentina

17/05/2001| IslamWeb

LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - Leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal wrapped up a summit in Lima on Saturday vowing their ``maximum commitment'' against terror and support for Argentina as it battles to avert devastating debt default.At a ceremony in Peru's renovated government palace, the representatives of 23 countries signed declarations pledging to root out terror, shore up the fragile world economy and support peace in Colombia. In other documents, they praised Peru and Nicaragua for clean elections and urged Britain and Argentina to settle a sovereignty dispute over the Falkland Islands.
``The time has come to act together, to advance our integration,'' Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo, host of the Ibero-American Summit, told a closing ceremony.
``All our reflections have and must have a central aim -- sustained economic growth generating decent jobs and an all-out war on poverty,'' he said.
Toledo billed the two-day annual meeting as a chance for leaders to roll up their sleeves behind closed doors and get down to core issues for the region.
``We have reaffirmed our rejection of terror, violence, crime and killing as a means of defending ideas or political positions,'' Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar said.
``This is a maximum commitment. ... Our fundamental obligation is to defeat terrorism. This is not easy,'' he said.
After the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States and the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to catch or kill Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, who is blamed for them, world security and the struggle against terrorism loomed large on the summit agenda.
The murder on the summit's first day of two police officers in Spain's Basque region -- blamed on separatist guerrillas ETA -- and four decades of strife in Colombia between leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries and the army provided a stark backdrop for the summit's resolve to crack down on terror.
Economic crisis was the other theme of the meeting, this year lacking its usual star, Cuban President Fidel Castro, who unexpectedly stayed home to direct hurricane recovery efforts.