Leaders of eight Muslim-majority nations signed agreements aimed at lowering
trade barriers and boosting economic cooperation on Saturday, at a summit
overshadowed by fears about Tehran's nuclear programme.
(L to R) Turkey's
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, Pakistan's Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz,
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Indonesia's President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono talk during the Developing Eight (D-8) Summit at the
Bali Convention Centre on the Indonesian island of Bali May 13, 2006. The
D-8 groups some of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nations and
is aimed primarily at developing economic and trade ties.
[Reuters] |
The Developing Eight (D-8), holding its fifth summit since its founding in
1997, groups some of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nations and is
aimed primarily at raising living standards of its members' more than half a
billion people.
But focus on those goals has been diverted by worries that nuclear projects
in Iran that may have military aims. Iran, the D-8's outgoing chairman, says the
projects are for peaceful purposes.
The D-8 has touched on nuclear energy in discussions of cooperation on
developing alternate sources of power, but has thus far not directly addressed
the dispute over Iran.
The United States wants to curb programmes it fears could lead to atomic
weapons and has asked the U.N. Security Council to pressure Iran.
Adding to concerns, U.N. inspectors have found traces of near bomb-grade
enriched uranium on nuclear equipment in Iran, diplomats said on Friday, as the
EU prepared a declaration that will insist Tehran shelve all enrichment work.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not mention the dispute in his
opening remarks at the conference. Iran is the outgoing chairman of the group.
He urged more effort by members to increase their ties and further
development "in the service of international peace and society".
"We can offer a good model for peace and justice," he said of the D-8, which
in addition to Indonesia and Iran includes Bangladesh, Egypt, Turkey,
nuclear-armed Pakistan, Nigeria and Malaysia.
The latter two include substantial numbers of non-Muslims although
Ahmadinejad, considered a hard-line Islamist, referred to the group as part of
the "Muslim ummah (community)".
Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, a Muslim moderate, delivered
the other opening speech. Indonesia is the incoming chair of the D-8.
Yudhoyono pointed out the meeting was being held on an island with a Hindu
majority, underscoring the group's "commitment to promote tolerance as a bedrock
of world peace".
He also praised the resilience of the Balinese in dealing with the aftermath
of "devastating terrorist attacks".
Blasts at Bali tourist spots in 2002 and 2005 killed more than 220 people and
were blamed on a militant Islamic group with links to al Qaeda.
Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak again on Saturday at an evening news
conference.
The United States has pushed for a Security Council resolution on Iran's
nuclear programme. That step is now on hold while European Union officials shape
a "carrots and sticks" offer to Tehran on the issue.
The package of incentives will insist Iran shelve uranium enrichment work,
according to an EU draft leaked on Friday, even though Tehran has ruled this out
in advance.
in a visit to Jakarta before coming to the summit, Ahmadinejad called Western
pressure "psychological propaganda".
The United States and its allies suspect Iran's professed ambition to purify
uranium to generate electricity is a smokescreen, a concern stoked by Tehran's
18-year concealment of sensitive enrichment research.
But Russia and China have resisted any U.N. Security Council resolution that
could spawn sanctions.
