Interior ministers from Iraq and its neighbours said Tuesday they would hammer out a regional security co-operation deal and pledged to step up border controls to prevent the flow of insurgents to and from the war-torn country.
The agreement was reached in a meeting here between ministers from Iraq, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Jordan, Egypt, Iran, Syria and Turkey, the second of its kind since December.
Iraq and it neighbours hope the deal will help ensure border security and combat terrorism and organised crime, Turkish Interior Minister Abdulakadir Aksu told a joint press conference with Iraqi counterpart Bayan Solagh.
"The ministers expressed their determination to increase their co-operation on overall border security with Iraq," a joint declaration said.
Areas covered were to include the monitoring of borders, strict control of border entry points and cross-border movement, and exchange of intelligence information with national Iraqi authorities, the text said. The co-operation deal had "the primary aim of stemming terrorists and other illegal infiltration's to and from Iraq," it added.
Turkey was to draw up a draft multilateral protocol on security co-operation that would be finalised at the ministers' next meeting, due to take place in Saudi Arabia at a yet undetermined date.
The ministers' declaration also stressed the need for "appropriate measures to prevent terror groups from using the territory of states as bases for presence, recruiting, training, financing, planning, inciting or launching of terrorist operations against other states."
Baghdad has long complained that its neighbours tolerate Islamic militants infiltrating Iraq to join the insurgency there against the US-led occupation, which has led to numerous civilian deaths.
A top suspect is Syria, which the United States has repeatedly accused of aiding the insurgency by providing foreign fighters or allowing militants to cross the border - a charge Damascus denies.
Iraq has also pointed an accusing finger at Iran.
"We may have differing opinions on the scope of foreign involvement in the bloodshed and chaos in Iraq, but none of us can deny the existence of foreign links to the terrorism there," Aksu told the opening session of the meeting.
"Effective and constant border security is in itself a confidence-building measure," he said. "There is great need for each one of us to take bilateral and multilateral measures that will have positive repercussions on the field."
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