Fed:Aust expected to play important Asia-Pacific leadership role

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Fed:Aust expected to play important Asia-Pacific leadership role

By Andrea Mayes

PERTH, Aug 2 AAP - The world expected Australia to assume a leadership role in theAsia-Pacific to provide stability and prevent the spread of terrorism, Prime MinisterJohn Howard said today.

Mr Howard said sending police to the Solomon Islands was evidence that Australia wascommitted to such a role.

"We have sent a very large force to the Solomon Islands because it is in Australia'sinterests, as well as the interests of the people of that small country that it not becomea failed state," he told the West Australian Liberal Party conference in Perth.

"Failed states become magnets for international criminals and money launderers andpotentially international terrorists."

He said the stability of the Solomon Islands had important implications for regional stability.

"We have a role above all others in this region because of our size and our relativestrength, to give leadership, and that is what we have done," Mr Howard said.

"The rest of the world expects us to do it, the people of the region expect us to doit, and I believe the people of Australia support us in having undertaken that role.

"It is a proper demonstration of being a good friend and a good neighbour to a smallcountry whose stability in the future will be important to the stability of our own region."

Mr Howard said the Bali bombings had proved the importance of close regional cooperationon security.

"It (Bali) was a further reminder of the need to strengthen our own domestic responsesto the threat of terrorism, a need to further invest in our intelligence agencies andour defence forces, and a reminder of the need for further regional cooperation betweenthe agencies of this country which are charged with law enforcement, and the agenciesin our region," Mr Howard said.

"The fact that we are now seeing the people responsible for those foul crimes beingtried in Indonesia is in no small measure due to the cooperation that was establishedin the early days after Bali," he said.

Mr Howard said regional cooperation was particularly important in the ongoing fightagainst terrorism.

"In the years ahead, which will see the fight against terrorism go on, until that fightis won, that cooperation will be essential."

AAP am/pc/pw/br

KEYWORD: LIBERALS WA HOWARD