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Rumsfeld seeks more Asian help

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld speaks during the 3rd IISS Asian Security Conference in Singapore yesterday. Rumsfeld warned Asian defense ministers and analysts that ``there is more to come'' in terror attacks that have rocked the area and the world. PHOTO: REUTERS

US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld pressed Asia yesterday to become more engaged in the war on terror, pledging closer security ties and military support from Washington.

Speaking to Asian defence ministers meeting in the wealthy island state of Singapore, Rumsfeld stopped short of openly requesting specific commitments on troops for the war in Iraq, saying every nation must find its own level of support.

He denied that Washington was pressuring its Asian allies to support the coalition in Iraq despite widespread opposition from people in the street across the region.

"We do not go around putting pressure, and I hope other countries don't, either, on countries to do something that is against their interests," Rumsfeld told the forum of defense officers and academics from about 20 Asian nations.

Several of Washington's closest allies in the region, including Japan, South Korea and Australia, said they were prepared to step up military plans to improve regional security.

"In today's world, where terrorist attacks and the act of war are more difficult to be distinguished, we should further contemplate on the possibility of utilising military power for policing," said Japan's defence minister, Shigeru Ishiba.

South Korea said it was preparing to expand its military role on the troubled peninsula as America realigned its forces.

Rumsfeld stressed that US plans to move about 3,600 of 37,000 American troops in South Korea to Iraq was not reduction in the US security commitment to Asia, noting that American forces were armed with more potent weaponry than in the Cold War.

Rumsfeld said the US and its allies had made great progress in the war on terror, but recalled an oft-repeated theme that it was impossible to snuff out all attempts by al Qaeda and other militant groups.

"What we don't know is what's coming in the intake, how many more of those folks are being trained, developed, organised and deployed and sent out to work the scenes, the shadows and the caves," he said.

He dismissed accusations that the United States was too unilateralist. "I think frankly [it's] a bum rap ... a myth and a mantra that people use," he said in response to a question.

Much of the third annual Asia-Pacific security dialogue focused on concerns about the threat from communist North Korea and a seaborne terror attack in the narrow Strait of Malacca running from Indonesia and Malaysia down to Singpaore.

More than 50,000 commercial vessels travel the 805km channel each year, carrying about a third of the world's trade and 80 percent of Japan's oil needs.

Australian Defence Minster Robert Hill said Malaysia, New Zealand, Britain, Singapore and Australia are considering expanding a "Five Powers Defence Arrangement" -- a remnant of British colonialism -- to tackle the threat of regional terror.

In north Asia, South Korea's armed forces "will develop their current conventional force structure to a technology-intensive structure that is appropriate for future war fighting," Minister for National Defence Cho Yung-kil said.

To counter seaborne threats, the United States is preparing to begin talks due by mid-year with Asian nations on maritime security, dubbed the "Regional Maritime Security Initiative."

Rumsfeld predicted that the rise of a free and self-governing Iraq, where nearly 900 US troops have been killed since last year's invasion, would "deny terrorists a base of operations, discredit their violent ideology and may well provide more momentum for reformers across the region."

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