Annan calls for global cooperation against terror

Beijing (Reuters): United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the bloody weekend bomb attack on the Indonesian island of Bali and called for international cooperation against terrorism as he met Chinese leaders on Monday.

Annan also told Beijing it must step up the fight against AIDS or face an explosive epidemic as he began a 10-day visit to China. Mongolia and Central Asia.

Annan's trip was almost canceled due to deliberations over a UN Security Council resolution on Iraq and the issue was high on the agenda in his meetings in China, one of five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council.

But the visit was inevitably overshadowed by Saturday's car bomb explosion in Bali which killed almost 200 people.

Annan told President Jiang Zeinin the attack highlighted the need to cooperate "to defeat the scourge of terrorism".

"It's tragic. It is a brutal and inhuman act and my condolences and deepest sympathies to the families who lost loved ones and are now grieving for them," he told reporters later as he met Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.

"It underscores the importance the work the Security Council is doing and it is important that all of us, all countries, come together to share information, to decide not to support terrorists, not to give them financial support, not to give them safety, not to give them comfort."

Annan said he discussed Iraq with Jiang, just two days before the Security Council opens debate on a resolution that would threaten Iraq if it failed to give full access to UN weapons inspectors.

"Iraq came up, but we didn't discuss resolutions. I think the council will be discussing it this week and I'm sure there will be a resolution," he said.

A U.S. draft would give inspectors more rights and authorize the use of force it Iraq did not comply.

Analysts say Beijing is likely to abstain on that, but could go along with Russia and back France's proposal for a two-step approach, in which a second resolution would be needed to authorise force.

Annan was also expected to urge Beijing to tackle human rights abuses, including those against ethnic Uighurs in the mainly Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang where China says it faces a terrorist threat from Islamic separatists.

But he kicked off his four-day visit to China with a stern message on AIDS delivered in a speech at Zhejiang University in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou.

"There is no time to lose if China is to prevent a massive further spread of HIV/AIDS. China is facing a decisive moment," he said after receiving an honorary degree from the university.