China Wednesday called on the United Nations to play a leading role in the international effort to prevent and combat terrorism, saying that terrorism poses "a serious threat to international peace and security."

The statement came as Wang Yingfan, the Chinese permanent representative to the United Nations, was speaking to an open debate at the 56th General Assembly session.

"The United Nations, which is the important forum for States to cooperate with each other in combating terrorism, should play a leading role in the international effort to this end," Wang said.

"The main organs and other relevant agencies of the United Nations should step up their coordination and cooperation in preventing and combating international terrorism," he said. "The Security Council should play its due part and establish an international anti-terrorism mechanism."

"Terrorism, which endangers innocent lives, causes losses of social wealth and jeopardizes state security, constitutes a serious challenge to human civilization and dignity as well as a serious threat to international peace and security," he said.

"The international community, therefore, must pool wisdom together and strengthen international cooperation against terrorism," he said.

Since the 1994 adoption by the General Assembly of the Declaration on Measures to Eliminate International Terrorism, commendable progress has been made in strengthening measures to combat international terrorism, as represented by the adoption of the International Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombing and the International Convention for the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, he said.

The formulation of an International Convection for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear Terrorism and a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism is under way, he said.

The week-long General Assembly debate, which opened here Monday, is the first international forum on terrorism since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, which have claimed more than 6,000 lives.

"The fight against international terrorism, which will be a protracted as well as complicated task, should be guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and other well-established norms of international law," he said.

An integrated approach involving political, diplomatic, economic, legal and other means should be adopted in this regard, he said. "We are strongly against linking terrorism to a certain religion or ethnicity."

"In order to eliminate international terrorism, efforts must be made to address both the symptom and its underlying causes," he said. "In the international fight against terrorism, the diversity of civilization should be respected and the issue of development be addressed vigorously so as to enable people of all levels in all countries to benefit from globalization."

"The international community should strengthen its efforts to solve regional conflicts in a more positive manner and seek just and reasonable solutions on the basis of the purposes and principles of the UN Charter," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/05/2001)