BEIJING, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Asian political leaders attending a party conference here agreed that political parties in Asia should undertake wide-range cooperation and seek a rejuvenation of Asia's glory.

  Dey Narendra Nath, Secretary of the Central Committee of the India Forward Bloc, said at a sideline workshop for the third International Conference of Asian Political Parties (ICAPP), which opened here Friday, that similar cultural roots shared by Asian countries provided a solid base for regional cooperation.

  He said all parties of vision would encourage their people to be proud of the culture and to enhance cooperation, either people to people or party to party.

  In the next decade, the world's power engine will shift from the West to Asia, which in turn will bring greater opportunities to the region's political parties, said Shabdolov Shodi Davlatovich of the Communist Party of Tajikistan.

  An imminent task for all Asian parties is to weed out elements detrimental to regional stability and  prosperity, such as poverty,terrorism and invasion, said Abdollah Al Ahmar of the Arab Baath Socialist Party of Syria.

  To reach the goal, Abdullah AL Noman of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party said that Asian countries must set aside their disparities and seek mutual understanding.

  Ko Pheng, a senior member of the Funcipec Party of Cambodia, stressed that terrorism was a common foe of the humankind. Whatever one's doctrines or beliefs, unity and concerted effort are powerful weapons against terrorism, he said.

  Under the umbrella of globalization, the world's competition has become increasingly fierce. China, however, has set a good example by beefing up its own strength but causing no harm to other countries, said General Secretary Dilip Barua of the Bangladesh Samyabadi Dal (Marxist-Leninist).

  To integrate the Asian economy for common prosperity, the continent should establish an effective collaboration system allowing timely assistance to one country and another, said Madhav Kumar Nepal, leader of the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist).

  In a world changing so fast, no party could stay alive without reforming itself and being attuned to the outside world, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister and Secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party Secretariat Vu Khoan noted.

  An important task in party capacity building is to prevent misconduct within the party, especially graft and corruption, as a responsible party should always cherish its credibility and set the public interest as its top priority, said Lao Deputy Prime Minister and member of the Lao People's Revolutionary Party Central Commission Somsawat Lengsavad.

  More than 350 delegates of more than 82 political parties and organizations from 34 countries participated in the conference hosted by the Communist Party of China. The ICAPP was initiated in 2000 and the first two conferences were held in Manila, the Philippines, in September 2000, and Bangkok, Thailand, in November 2002. 

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