6 workshops to materialize principles of interfaith dialogue

NAM summit urges implementation of ICJ ruling on racist separation wall in West Bank

Obama to visit Israel for peace talks

Iran to offer West fresh package to start dialogue

Iraqi official says terrorist cell to remain active for two years

The Follow-Up Committee at the international dialogue conference formed six workshops to discuss the decisions and recommendations of the first international dialogue conference organized by the Muslim World League (MWL) in 1429 AH.

Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulmohsen Al-Turki, the MWL's Secretary General said the workshops will review the freedom of religions, the common responsibilities as regards protection of the environment, means for the protection of women and families, human dignity and common human cooperation.

He noted that the chairmen of the workshops will brief the follow up committee on the outcome of their workshops deliberations.

Meanwhile, Leaders from the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), a group of 118 countries, said the world needs a financial system that is fairer to developing states which have suffered most in a crisis caused by rich countries.

The presidents of Cuba, Egypt and others were addressing a NAM summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

The summit on Wednesday and Thursday is the 15th held by NAM, a grouping that has struggled to stay relevant after it was founded during the Cold War by countries which did not want to be aligned either with the Soviet Union or the United States.

Following is some background about the Sharm el-Sheikh meeting and NAM:

THE SHARM EL-SHEIKH SUMMIT:

* A meeting between Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistani premier Yusuf Raza Gilani on the sidelines could become a focus and set the stage for dialogue between the rivals.

* Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is at the summit despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) indictment calling for his arrest on charges he masterminded rights abuses in Darfur. In a draft statement, NAM voiced "deep concern" about the ICC's move to indict Bashir.

* Egypt took over chairing NAM from Cuba at the summit.

* Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said the meeting includes almost 55 presidents, as well as other top officials from member states.

ORIGIN OF NAM:

* The Bandung Asian-African Conference in April 1955 was instrumental in founding the Non-Aligned Movement. That meeting gathered delegates from 29 countries, many newly independent from their colonial rulers.

FOUNDING NAM SUMMIT:

* The NAM was formally set up in 1961 in Belgrade by developing countries that chose not to align with the United States or Soviet Union to avoid becoming caught up in Cold War politics. Twenty-five countries were represented.

* The founding fathers were President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru of India, President Gamal Abdul-Nasser of Egypt, President Sukarno of Indonesia and President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana.

* Nasser, a champion of Arab nationalism, was a hero to Arabs for defying the United States and colonial powers Britain and France in the 1950s and 1960s. "We don't want to become a part of any sphere of influence for any power.

* That is what the United States has tried to do with us," he said.

NAM TODAY:

* The movement now has 118 member states, with 15 observer states, representing two-thirds of the members of the United Nations and half of the world's population. It has struggled to find a role since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union's collapse.

* The 118 are composed of 53 states in Africa, 38 in Asia, 1 in Europe and 26 in Latin America and the Caribbean.

The leaders called for a new world economic order. Cuban President Raul Castro called for a "new financial and economic order" in response to the world financial crisis at the opening session of the NAM's 15th triennial summit.

"We call for the establishment of a new financial and economic order based on the actual participation of all member states, particularly developing countries," he told delegates from the 118 countries that make up the movement.

"The current crisis will not be resolved by superficial solutions," Castro said.

The NAM summits have been billed as the largest gathering of nations outside the UN General Assembly.

Cuba is passing leadership of the movement, which represents more than 50 per cent of the world population, to Egypt. Three years ago, at a summit in Havana, Cuba assumed leadership of the movement from Malaysia.

"It is an honor for our country to pass the leadership of the movement to Egypt, one of the founders of this movement," Castro said.

Castro reaffirmed the movement's support for the Palestinian people and "all occupied Arab countries," saying that these issues "remain at the top of the (movement's) agenda."

"The movement has not hesitated to condemn Israeli attacks and crimes, and will continue its efforts to regain the rights of the Palestinian people," he said.

In his remarks to the more than 50 world leaders assembled for the summit, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi called for the movement to establish its own security council as a counterweight to the UN Security Council, which he described as a form of "terrorism."

"The Security Council is terrorism. It has no power over the world's strongest countries," he said.

"We are missing from the world's international organizations, such as the UN Security Council and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," Gaddafi said.

"The UN Security Council is only for the permanent members, and the IMF is called international, but it is not, because it serves a certain group," he said. "This represents a danger toward international peace. ... It has become a sword over our necks."

This year's summit has fostered communication between countries with strained relations.

Significant meetings took place on the sidelines, Pakistani and Indian foreign ministry officials held a meeting in the Red Sea resort city in advance of their prime ministers' meeting, expected to be held on Thursday. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Pakistani counterpart Yousef Raza Galani are expected to meet on the sidelines to discuss possible new peace talks.

Foreign Secretary Shri Shivshankar Menon and his Pakistani counterpart Salman Bashir had talks for 90 minutes on Tuesday, during which time they discussed last November's attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai.

India blamed the November attacks, which left more than 160 people dead, on the banned Pakistani militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba. Indian and Pakistani officials have held out the possibility of a joint statement on the attacks.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki have also met three times since preliminary meetings began over the weekend.

Abul-Gheit said he hoped the two countries could cooperate to bring "stability to the region."

Egypt and Iran severed diplomatic relations 30 years ago, after Egypt signed a peace treaty with Israel and offered asylum to the deposed shah following the Iranian Revolution.

The broader summit is also expected to produce declarations about the security of the world's food supply, climate change and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and to honor former South African president Nelson Mandela.

The movement was founded in 1955 by former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul-Nasser, and former Yugoslav president Josip Broz Tito.

Participating countries said they did not wish to be drawn into the Cold War, but vowed, in a 1979 declaration, to support each other in their "struggle against imperialism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, racism, and all forms of foreign aggression."

Since the end of the Cold War, the NAM has been looking for a new role.

The NAM leaders issued a 'strong' declaration on the issue of Palestine, with Egypt playing the lead role soon after taking over the helm of the 118-member grouping during the summit which began Wednesday, said the Malaysian news agency BERNAMA.

Besides calling on the United States, Russia and the European Union to use their influence on Israel to honor its commitments for the peace process, NAM foreign ministers also want Tel Aviv to be held accountable for the deaths and damage it had caused during the war on Gaza.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman, who attended a meeting of the NAM Ministerial Committee on Palestine, said NAM representatives pledged support to Egypt in bringing the relevant Palestinian parties together to talk and bridge the differences among them.

For Malaysia, unity is one of the crucial elements to liberate the Palestinians from Israeli occupation, Anifah Monday told Malaysian journalists covering the NAM summit in this Egyptian resort city.

Malaysian Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is scheduled to arrive later Tuesday to attend the 15th summit, officially opened by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak Wednesday.

'We are hopeful because after (Barack) Obama took over as president of the United States, he has urged Israel to respect the peace initiatives and he is most desirous to resolve the problem.

In Washington, President Barack Obama is telling Jewish leaders the United States remains committed to Israel and will not implement any foreign policy that would threaten that country's security.

Obama on Monday invited more than a dozen Jewish groups to a private meeting at the White House. He explained the United States' approach to restarting peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian people and answered questions from a sometimes skeptical group.

Participants said Obama didn't introduce any new proposals during the hour-long discussion, but spent the bulk of the time seeking comments and trying to allay concerns.

Obama told leaders of American Jewish groups he is committed to Israel but the country must rethink its policy on illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The comments came during an hour-long White House meeting with 16 leaders representing the Jewish pro-Israeli establishment. Notably, the meeting was also attended by Jeremy Ben-Ami, executive director of J Street, a pro-Israeli organization that has taken more liberal positions on issues such as settlements.

In addition to the stalled Middle East peace process, the meeting also reportedly addressed fears over Iran’s nuclear program.

Obama told the leaders that he wants to help Israel maintain a Jewish majority by reaching a two-state solution, but said that the country would need "to engage in serious self-reflection," according to news reports.

AP wrote that some Jewish leaders told the president they thought progress will only be made in the peace process when the US and Israel are in lockstep. Obama replied that there has been no difference between US and Israeli positions for the last eight years, and that no progress was made under President George W Bush, according to the news agency.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said it would concern "political, security and international issues".

He was speaking in Tehran hours after G8 leaders said they were appalled at Iran's disputed presidential election.

US President Barack Obama said global leaders were also "deeply troubled" by Iran's nuclear program. Iran denies it is trying to build a nuclear bomb.

Mr. Mottaki played down international concerns, saying there had been "no new message from the G8".

"We are going to present our package which will be a basis to negotiate all regional and international issues," he told a news conference in Tehran, without giving further details.

"The package can be a good basis for talks with the West." The US has threatened tough sanctions if Iran rejects offers of engagement over its nuclear program.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but has been accused by Western countries of seeking nuclear weapons.

In Baghdad, the Iraqi military on Sunday predicted that insurgent attacks, though declining, could continue for a few years, raising the prospect of militant violence after the scheduled withdrawal of all U.S. troops by the end of 2011.

The comments by Gen. Babaker B. Shawkat Zebari, the army chief of staff, came several hours after gunmen fatally shot a government financial officer in northern Iraq and one day after bombs in Baghdad and a village near Mosul killed 10 people.

Violence is sharply down in the war that began with the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, but militants still carry out lethal attacks on a regular basis. The U.S. military completed a withdrawal of combat forces from Iraqi cities to outlying bases last month as part of a plan to let Iraq take the lead on ensuring its own security.

Zebari said insurgents once held sway in cities and provinces, but had been whittled down to a few highly dangerous cells that he expected would continue attacks for "a year or two or three." He said the Iraqi military would get help from American forces if needed, but would also rely on assistance from its own citizens.

"To face terrorism, the Iraqi army does not need tanks or armored vehicles, but needs intelligence, fast communication and people's support," he said "The government has to coordinate with the population to get information about the terrorist cells."

The army chief spoke after meeting Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, in the holy Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. Al-Sistani enjoys massive support among Iraq's majority Shiites, and the Iraqi military sees the backing of religious leaders as vital to its legitimacy and success.

While violence has diminished since 2007, insurgents exact a steady toll with bombs and targeted killings that would amount to a crisis in most other countries.

In the northern city of Kirkuk, gunmen with silencers in a car waited outside the house of Aziz Rizqo Nisan, head of the provincial audit department, and shot him as he drove to work on Sunday morning. His death was confirmed by local police and the national government's media office in Baghdad.

The motive for the killing of Nisan, a Christian, was unclear.

Insurgents commonly target Iraqi government officials and security forces. Ethnic and sectarian tension is high in Kirkuk, a disputed city that Kurds want to annex into their northern region despite Arab opposition.

South of Baghdad, a member of a Sunni militia that is overseen by the Shiite-led government, was found dead with gunshot wounds in his chest in Jurf al-Sakhar town, a police officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

The militia, known as the Awakening Councils, includes many former insurgents who joined forces with the Americans and promised to fight al-Qaeda in Iraq. The movement was considered a key factor in a drop in violence over the past two years, and has complained about missed payments and crackdowns on its leaders since the Iraqi government took control late last year.

In the capital, three bombs exploded around 4:30 p.m. near churches, injuring eight civilians, police said. Two bombs that were planted in a church in western Baghdad exploded at midnight Saturday, causing some damage but no injuries, police said. Iraqi Christians have often been attacked by Islamic extremists, and many have fled the country.

Half a dozen lawmakers demanded that a general census planned later this year be postponed until after parliamentary elections in January. They argued that the upheaval of war had caused radical change in the ethnic and sectarian makeup of many areas and the results could ignite fresh tension.

Lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi, a Sunni Arab from the northern city of Mosul, noted that large numbers of Kurds had moved into the oil-rich Kirkuk area amid Arab concerns that they seek to take control.

In Baghdad, sectarian violence between Sunni and Shiite Arabs altered the face of neighborhoods as people fled their homes or quit the city altogether.

"The form for the census has an item about the ethnicity of the person, and that would lead to shocking results," al-Nujaifi said at a news conference.