SANTIAGO (AFP) - US Secretary of State Colin Powell and partners in the Asia-Pacific axis converge here Wednesday to thwart North Korea's nuclear arms ambitions, press the "war on terror" and rip away trade barriers.
Foreign and trade ministers were gathering Tuesday in Santiago, Chile, against the backdrop of the towering snow-capped peaks of the Aconcagua range, for a two-day conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
The talks, a smudgy combination of official agendas and informal political arm-twisting, aim to produce a strong message for a weekend summit of the 21 APEC leaders, including US President George W. Bush.
Bush and leaders of the other major powers, Japan, China and Russia, will rub shoulders in the APEC forum with those of southeast Asian nations including tiny Brunei and the Pacific island state of Papua New Guinea.
A massive security operation had yet to hit full gear, a day before the ministerial meeting began.
At the airport, security was low key.
Military-style police screened officials and their bags on entry to the Espacio Riesco conference center. Three police on horseback stood in a field of hip-high grass on one side of the building.
Santiago and its five million inhabitants are under surveillance by at least 3,500 police and an unspecified number of intelligence agents and air force personnel for the summit, officials said.
Loosely grouped under the Anti-APEC Committee, radical groups plan a student march on Wednesday and a big rally and open-air concert on Sunday.
Broader security risks will occupy the policymakers.
Powell -- vowing to work hard until the "very, very end" as he announced his resignation from Bush's cabinet on Monday -- set his sights on North Korea, which has refused to participate in six-country talks to end its nuclear weapons drive.
"(We will) make sure that we use our alliances in Asia and the partnerships we have in Asia to keep pressing to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear program," Powell told a news conference in Washington Monday. He was due to arrive here early Wednesday.
The United States' "war on terror" and the Iraq war are not on the official APEC agenda, but Bush is bound to press his core security agenda.
In the runup to the talks, the US leader called Philippine President Gloria Arroyo to patch up relations, soured when she withdrew Filipino troops from Iraq at the demand of insurgents who took a Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, hostage.
Iraqi hostage-takers took another Filipino in recent days.
The terrorism stakes in Asia are high.
Indonesia has suffered a spate of attacks this decade by the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, including the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died, and was seen by some as a weak link in efforts to fight terrorists.
The Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has been kidnapping foreigners in the southern Philippines.
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra initially cancelled plans to attend the November 20-21 summit due to an upsurge of violence in his country's mainly Muslim south, although officials confirmed Sunday that he would attend.
Asia-Pacific leaders also want to wrench back their role as the standard bearers for free trade.
US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donahue vowed to carry a clear message to Asia-Pacific leaders.
"We seek markets that are more open to American products, services and investments. This can be achieved by completing Free Trade Agreements as well as the critically important Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations," he said.
Policymakers are struggling over how to deal with a growing network of one-on-one or regional discriminatory free-trade agreements. They also plan to inject new dynamism into a major round of World Trade Organization negotiations, begun in Doha, Qatar in 2001.
Business leaders in the APEC Business Advisory Council have even called on the APEC leaders to set up their own Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific, saying it would bring significant benefits to the region.
APEC groups together Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
11/16/2004 - 18:25 GMT - AFP