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Non-aligned summit wraps up in Cuba

Representatives of 118 Nonaligned Movement nations condemned Israel's attacks on Lebanon and supported a peaceful resolution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear program in the final declaration on Saturday of a summit that brought together some of the world's staunchest foes of the US.

The 92-page declaration also broadly condemned terrorism -- with exceptions for movements for self-determination and battles against foreign occupiers.

And while declaring democracy to be a universal value, the movement said no one country or region should define it for the whole world. The leaders mentioned Venezuela and Cuba in particular as they asserted the right of all countries to determine their own form of government.

The statements, many of which contain veiled criticisms of the US, were approved by unanimous consent after another round of speechmaking on Saturday night by leaders of the Nonaligned Movement.

"No one in the Nonaligned Movement thinks that the United States is responsible for all the problems, but many think that it is for some," Cuba's Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said.

An ailing Fidel Castro was named president of the movement, but he stayed home in his pajamas on doctors' orders while Acting Cuban President Raul Castro presided over the meeting of two-thirds of the world's nations.

Raul joined numerous US foes who said a bellicose US had made the world more dangerous.

"The United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."

Many demanded that the UN take action against the veto power of the five permanent Security Council members. Suggestions in the final declaration include expanding the council's membership or allowing council vetoes to be overruled by a two-thirds majority of the General Assembly.

"The US is turning the security council into a base for imposing its politics," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad complained.

"Why should people live under the nuclear threat of the US?," he said.

Some leaders tried to resolve disputes with their neighbors: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh agreed Saturday to resume peace talks, and Bolivian President Evo Morales tried to reassure Brazilians angered by tough energy negotiations.

Others held onto hardline positions: North Korea defended its nuclear weapons program, Sudan's leader rejected a UN peacekeeping mission for Darfur and Ahmadinejad insisted on Iran's right to develop nuclear energy.
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