APEC leaders pledge to cut terrorist funding

APEC members must meet port security targets by July 2004.

"We must grow our economies even as we protect our borders and find new ways to secure our key economic infrastructure from terrorist attacks," their declaration said.

"We will jointly work to deny terrorists access to the world's financial system and use the money trail to locate and apprehend terrorists," leaders said, and vowed to enact a set of cybersecurity laws to protect the Internet.

On more traditional APEC ground, they promised to restore trust in financial markets by taking measures to drive out corporate corruption.

Bush left Los Cabos for the US campaign trail without visibly softening opposition to his firm line on Iraq, with controversy building on the US struggle to push a firm resolution on weapons inspections through the UN Security Council.

China's President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) meanwhile, made a quiet exit from the international stage, before he starts to hand over his Communist party posts later this year.

A beaming Jiang, 76, visibly enjoyed rubbing shoulders with fellow leaders for probably the last time -- perhaps surveying his legacy, which he styled to portray himself as the man who ushered China irrevocably into the modern world.