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Powell in Europe for terror summit

Powell will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres at the Bucharest talks

BUCHAREST, Romania -- U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has arrived in the Romanian capital for what is being dubbed Europe's terror summit.

Powell, whose Bucharest visit kicks off a week-long European trip that will include a series of meetings at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, is pressing for a continent that is "whole, free and at peace," the State Department said.

Crucially at the Bucharest summit he will meet Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well as Afghanistan will dominate his agenda.

Foreign ministers of the 55-nation Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) opened their two-day anti-terror conference on Monday vowing to stop terrorists from taking root in fledgling democracies.

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Meeting in the one-time palace of former Romanian dictator Nicholae Ceausescu, they called for more intervention in the Balkans and the former Soviet republics.

The group planned to adopt a resolution outlining a joint European plan against terror later on Tuesday when Powell joins the session.

"The tragic events of September 11 are a cruel reminder of the necessity and the urgency of a security partnership of countries that embrace the values of democracy and peace," said Hubert Vedrine, France's foreign minister.

Mircea Geoana, Romania's foreign minister and chairman of the OSCE, said the group's action plan would focus on "the political, social and economic inequalities that provide a fertile breeding ground for exploitation by extremists."

"We must pay close attention to the links between organised crime and terrorism, particularly the financing side," Geoana said.

Chris Patten, external relations commissioner for the European Union, agreed that the fight against terror had to address poverty and corruption exploited by extremists.

"Today's weak states can easily turn into tomorrow's failed states," he told the gathering. "They impoverish their people, but they nourish and enrich terrorists and organised crime. No wonder they attract them like flies around a carcass."

Patten did not identify specific states but said the EU planned to double aid to the central Asian region bordering Afghanistan.

There was "a new political climate" since the September 11 attacks, Geoana said, urging Europe to make the most of "the international partnership that was built after the tragic events in the United States."

"The global coalition against terror can mark a new era of cooperation," agreed German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, adding that the West was wrong to expect peace in the post-Cold War era without constantly working to secure it.

"Investments in peace are now more essential than ever in light of the threat from a murderous international terrorist network," he said. "That has to mean greater commitment to human rights and the construction of civil societies."

The OSCE also planned to endorse a document that would provide greater security and stability "in and around the former Yugoslavia."

Anatoly Zlenko, the foreign minister of Ukraine, pointed to the potential terrorist threat in the Balkans, where, he said, "unsettled conflicts, severe ethnic clashes, economic problems, widespread organised crime... create a favourable and nourishing environment for militant separatism and religious extremism."

But Swedish Foreign Minister Anna Lindh cautioned nations to "never set aside human rights and the rule of law" in the rush to quash extremism and bring terrorists to justice.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said the new anti-terror partnership between Moscow and Washington had strengthened the OSCE. Last year, disputes over references to Russia's war in Chechnya effectively derailed the OSCE summit.