Queen opens Commonwealth meet

Australian Prime Minister John Howard greets Queen Elizabeth at Coolum

COOLUM, Australia (CNN) -- Amid tight security, Queen Elizabeth has officially opened a biennial summit of Commonwealth leaders in Australia where the issues of terrorism and Zimbabwe are expected to dominate the agenda.

An elaborate opening ceremony featuring Aboriginal dancers and surf life savers on Saturday welcomed leaders of about 35 from 54 Commonwealth nations at the meeting held at a luxury resort in Coolum on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

The shadow of September 11 hangs heavily over the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) which is hoped to develop recommendations for a plan of action on terrorism which would be designed to complement United Nations initiatives, Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon said.

The 2002 CHOGM is a scaled down event following the postponing of the original meeting -- scheduled for October last year -- because of the attacks on New York and Washington.

Only two member countries -- Antigua and Granada -- have totally withdrawn from meeting and apart from the late withdrawal of the leaders from India and Sri Lanka due to domestic upheavals, McKinnon said other leaders had pulled out due to the timing of the meeting.

Many Commonwealth countries worked on a March 31 financial year meaning some leaders preferred to stay at home to oversee budgetary matters, he said.

Security at CHOGM is all-pervasive regardless, despite the no-frills approach of the meetings organizers.

No fly zone

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More than 6,000 security personnel are monitoring the event and the air-space over the venue has been closed down.

Australian Air Force fighter jets are patrolling the area and conducting security exercises, which led to speculation a small aircraft flying near the site had been forced to land by the jets.

Conference organizers told media that the incident was a practice-run only.

Access to the delegates and the meetings is also being strictly controlled with the 943 journalists present being confined to a media center far removed from the leaders.

While the meeting proper begins Saturday, one of the other key issues for CHOGM -- the situation in Zimbabwe -- was discussed by a Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group on Friday morning.

The group will put a series of recommendations from that meeting to the heads of government, who will then decide on what, if any, course of action they will take on Zimbabwe.

The Commonwealth is concerned about what it calls the erosion of the democratic process in Zimbabwe, particularly in the lead-up to the nation's national election scheduled for November 8.

Observers

More than 4,000 police and 2,000 military are providing security at CHOGM

McKinnon told media the Commonwealth already had 45 or 46 electoral observers in place in Zimbabwe, as well as 10 other Commonwealth staffers.

He said the general tenor of information being made available to him was that the situation in Zimbabwe was certainly not good, and certainly deteriorating.

It is more uncomfortable than it was in the June 2000 election there, he said, but he added that at this stage he had no evidence of restrictions being placed on the movements of those election observers.

A delegation from Zimbabwe is attending CHOGM, but President Robert Mugabe has not arrived.

McKinnon would not be drawn on what action the Commonwealth might be contemplating for Zimbawe.

The European Union has imposed economic sanctions on the African nation, but it is believed CHOGM delegates are split on what action should be taken.

At present the only nation to be currently suspended from the Commonwealth is Pakistan, which was banned after the military seized government there several years ago.

Fiji was also suspended after its military coup, but has been since re-admitted.