Leaders seek crackdown on terror as summit ends

BANGKOK, Thailand — World leaders called today for a crackdown against terrorist groups and tougher steps to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction as they wrapped up an economic summit shrouded in security concerns and rattled by one and possibly two North Korean missile tests.

The 21-nation summit of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation was concluding two days of talks with a luncheon that officials said would be a freewheeling discussion about economic problems and security issues. Afterward, President Bush was heading from Bangkok to Singapore for an overnight stay and then a quick visit to the Indonesian island of Bali where terrorist tensions were high.

The final communique was not expected to specifically mention North Korea's nuclear threat, although South Korea wanted the subject to be addressed in the document. Leaders were considering whether to reference it outside the formal declaration.

The White House said it was not disappointed, saying the United States and other nations engaged in talks with North Korea were unanimous in calling for a nuclear-free peninsula.

"All five nations are speaking with one voice," presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said.

While some nations complained that security issues were dominating the meeting's stated economic agenda, the summit urged all countries to "eliminate the severe and growing danger problem posed by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," a senior administration official said, reading from the summit communique.

The leaders also urged countries to "dismantle fully and without delay transnational terrorist groups that threaten the APEC economies."

On the economic front, the leaders agreed to revive global trade liberalization talks that collapsed recently in Mexico. They did not offer a formula to break the impasse but directed negotiators go back to work on the text they had left behind, the White House said.

China's president, Hu Jintao, urged summit partners to take a tough stand, and Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a close U.S. ally, said action was more important than words.

"For some time, terrorist attacks have gone on unabated in the Asia-Pacific region, undermining the economic and social development of a number of countries," Hu told the summit, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.