US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld pressed Asia on Saturday to become more engaged in the war on terror, pledging closer security ties and military support from Washington.
Speaking to Asian defence ministers meeting in the wealthy island state of Singapore, Rumsfeld stopped short of requesting specific commitments on troops for the war in Iraq, saying every nation must find its own level of support.
He denied that Washington was pressuring its Asian allies to support the coalition in Iraq despite widespread opposition from people in the street across the region.
"We do not go around putting pressure, and I hope other countries don't, either, on countries to do something that is against their interests," Rumsfeld told the forum of defence officers and academics from about 20 Asian nations. Several of Washington's closest allies in the region, including Japan, South Korea and Australia, said they were prepared to step up military plans to improve regional security.
"In today's world, where terrorist attacks and the act of war are more difficult to be distinguished, we should further contemplate on the possibility of utilising military power for policing," Japan's defence minister, Shigeru Ishiba, said in a written statement.
South Korea said it was preparing to expand its military role on the troubled peninsula as America realigned its forces.
Rumsfeld stressed that US plans to move about 3,600 of 37,000 American troops in South Korea to Iraq was not reduction in the US security commitment to Asia, noting that American forces were armed with more potent weaponry than in the Cold War.
He said the United States and its allies had made great progress in the war on terror, but recalled an oft-repeated theme that it was impossible to snuff out all attempts by al Qaeda and other militant groups.
"What we don't know is what's coming in the intake, how many more of those folks are being trained, developed, organised and deployed and sent out to work the scenes, the shadows and the caves," he said.
He dismissed accusations that the United States was too unilateralist. "I think frankly (it's) a bum rap. a myth and a mantra that people use," he said in response to a question.
There were no representatives at the conference from China, possibly because a delegate from a think tank in rival Taiwan was invited.
Much of the third annual Asia-Pacific security dialogue focused on concerns about the threat from communist North Korea and a seaborne terror attack in the narrow Strait of Malacca running from Indonesia and Malaysia down to Singapore.
More than 50,000 commercial vessels travel the 805-km (500-mile) channel each year, carrying about a third of the world's trade and 80 percent of Japan's oil needs.
To counter seaborne threats, the United States is preparing to begin talks due by mid-year with Asian nations on maritime security, dubbed the "Regional Maritime Security Initiative". The secretary left Singapore for Bangladesh later on Saturday for talks with its leaders. Although the country has no troops in Iraq or Afghanistan, it has a tradition of sending "blue helmet" peacekeepers to global troublespots under UN command.
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