Ashcroft urges Asia to unite vs. terror

BALI, Indonesia -- US Attorney General John D. Ashcroft urged senior Asia Pacific officials yesterday to bolster cooperation to fight terrorism but offered no access to Asia's leading terrorist, now in American custody.

Australia's foreign minister told delegates at a two-day antiterror conference that more terrorist attacks are "inevitable."

Ministers and other officials from 33 countries gathered on Bali -- site of a deadly terror attack in October 2002 -- sought ways to pool their resources to battle Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian terror group linked to Al Qaeda.

"We have convened here in Bali to deepen our cooperation against those who oppose our shared values and those who would murder innocents," Ashcroft said.

Delegates are not expected to undertake far-reaching regional accords that proponents say would be most effective in fighting terrorists, such as a joint police force or a policy-making entity to streamline antiterror legislation.

Nonetheless, Indonesia and Australia announced yesterday the creation of two antiterror centers in Indonesia jointly run by the two governments. They also signed an accord on the exchange of financial intelligence to fight money laundering.

In closed-door meetings, some delegates proposed new evidence-sharing mechanisms that would enable governments to keep suspects in prison based on other countries' evidence, said one delegate who declined to be named.

Others proposed expanding common databases so that information about terrorists could be shared more efficiently, the delegate said.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri of Indonesia said it "has now become our common duty" to expand "the current joint endeavors to encompass a wider and more effective cooperation."

That sentiment was echoed by Ashcroft, who said: "The fight against terrorism is not something undertaken by any one country, any one group. . . . It takes all of us to work together."

Yet when asked at a news conference whether Washington would grant Indonesia access to Hambali, Jemaah Islamiyah's purported operations chief, Ashcroft said he was "not able to give a specific time frame" for doing so.

Indonesia has been seeking to interrogate Hambali, whose real name is Riduan Isamuddin, since his capture in Thailand last August. The Indonesian suspect is being held by the United States at an undisclosed location.