Top Asian diplomats call for bridging digital divide, quick NKorea nuclear disarmament

SEOUL (AFP) - Thirty Asian and Middle Eastern nations agreed Tuesday to try to bridge the IT divide between rich and poor countries through shared expertise and joint research projects.

Ministers also pressed North Korea to make an early start on scrapping its nuclear programme, according to hosts South Korea.

The declaration on IT came at the end of the sixth meeting of the Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD), attended by foreign ministers and other minister-level officials or deputies.

Members agreed to speed up efforts to establish or improve IT infrastructure.

They vowed to "support joint IT study and research projects among member countries while encouraging strong partnership in the IT field both at the government and private levels."

The ACD also pledged to tackle the downside of new technology including the use of the Internet for terrorist incitement and recruiting, cyber attacks, online piracy and Internet addiction.

South Korea, one of the world's most wired societies with 70 percent of homes receiving broadband Internet, earlier offered its support.

"Korea will not spare efforts to support countries in not only building advanced network infrastructure... but also in introducing e-government services," Information and Communications Minister Rho Jun-Hyong said in an opening speech.

Prime Minister Han Duck-Soo said South Korea would organise education programmes for IT experts or send Internet youth volunteers abroad.

The divide must not translate into "a rift in the economic and social opportunities of our constituents," he said.

"The information gap between the haves and the have-nots is more glaring in this age of instant information access and sophisticated communications technology," Han said.

At their close-door meetings ministers also agreed that North Korea must denuclearise as promised, according to South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-Soon.

"The ministers all agreed that the February 13 agreement should be implemented as early as possible," he told a press conference.

North Korea's promised disarmament under the six-nation pact is stuck because of an impasse over the return of its funds that were frozen in a Macau bank at US instigation.

The ACD, the brainchild of Thailand's Thaksin Shinawatra before he became prime minister, was inaugurated in June 2002.

Organisers say it is significant as the first and only body covering the entire Asian continent. Critics say the membership is too diverse for it to be meaningful.

Prime Minister Han said the ACD should become a regional forum to forge "collective economic strategies" to maintain Asia's competitiveness.

"As other regions come together in the spirit of cooperation we cannot afford to be the only continent lacking a regional forum to consolidate our strength to project a unified voice in world affairs."

Thai Foreign Minister Nitya Pibulsonggram said the ACD should move from "conceptual ideas to concerted action." It should, for example, look at concrete measures to promote alternative energy.

ACD members are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Kuwait, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Oman, Pakistan, the Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.