Philippines President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo yesterday told leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) meeting in China that one of the most effective ways to contain the spread of terrorism is to launch a sustained fight against poverty and ignorance, reports from the presidential palace said yesterday.

Speaking before the 20 other Apec economic leaders over lunch in Shanghai, Arroyo explained that among the reasons people in various parts of the world have supported terrorist organisations are poverty and a failure to acquire a deeper understanding of international issues.

This reality, she said, has allowed international terrorist organisations to easily indoctrinate some people who have pledged full loyalty to these groups. "Within democracy and the rule of law, we (Apec leaders) must act to control the spread of terrorism as an ideology foisted upon the poor, the ignorant and the dispossessed," she said.

In the Philippines, Arroyo said, the government has set in place measures to keep the entire country together and supportive of the administration's fight against terrorism. "The Philippines has institutionalised the tools of autonomy, consensus and inter-faith dialogue as a means to serve this end," she noted.

The president added that "our anti-poverty programmes are closely focused on the spawning ground of fanaticism and irrational violence. "We must pursue a broader inter-faith dialogue to promote Christian and Muslim solidarity," she explained.

The Philippines is one of the most impoverished countries in south-east Asia, and it is also coping with extremist groups as well as separatist and insurgency movements.

During the same luncheon, Arroyo and the leaders of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand have begun discussions on the formation of a coalition to combat terrorism within the region.

The Philippine leader said the focus of the coalition would be on security operations, specifically on the exchange of information and intelligence. According to the president, the creation of the sub-grouping between the Philippines and the other countries in the southeast Asian region would "make us stronger in fighting terrorism in our part of the world".

She also pointed out that the 21 Apec economies, individually and collectively, face enormous political and economic security challenges.

"Apec, as a forum and institution, must rise to these challenges," the president said.

The obvious measures, she noted, are laws combating money laundering, financial supervision and surveillance, squeezing the flow of funds to the terrorists that seek to undermine the democratic systems of government and economic and political freedom.