RIYADH, February 9 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – An anti-terror conference hosted by Saudi Arabia wrapped up its proceedings, with support for a Saudi proposal to set up an international center to combat terror.

The conference, however, asserted that the United Nations is the major forum to promote international cooperation against terrorism, in a clear counter to the unilateral US terror-combat policies.

“A task force has been established to further elaborate this proposal,” read the closing “Riyadh Declaration”, according to Agence France Presse (AFP) Tuesday, February 8.

On Saturday, February 5, Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz opened the conference with a call for establishing a global center to combat and preempt terrorism.

The center, due to be hosted by Switzerland, aims at promoting exchange of intelligence and security information on terror-combat.

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz said the center could be an institute for research, training and sharing of expertise.

“There are various ways. It could be more of a think-tank, doing research papers, or more of an operational real-time thing,” US State Department official William Pope told Reuters Tuesday.

US and British delegates, however, said the proposed center could not replace bilateral exchange of intelligence and security cooperation.

A recent report by the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies said Saudi Arabia's counter-terrorism efforts were being hampered by the weakness of its main foreign intelligence service.

The four-day event was attended by representatives from some 50 countries and international organizations.

The conference was hailed by western delegates as an important wider message that Saudi Arabia was serious about fighting terrorism at home and enhancing international cooperation, Reuters said.

“The main thing is that Saudi Arabia, which was considered since 9/11 as perhaps the home country of a certain kind of terrorism, is not only taking measures inside the country but playing an important role internationally to fight it,” a European official said.

The same message was echoed by US, European and Russian officials who said that Saudi Arabia was serious about measures like stopping the abuse of Islamic charities for international “terrorist” funding.

“One mustn’t be naive, you can’t cut that off at a stroke,” said Anatoly Safonov, special representative on terrorism for Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“But we see there is understanding, there is the political will to fight this, and there's no doubt there are already initial results.”

The final communiqué stressed the UN should be the major forum to enhance international cooperation on combating terror, urging all countries to comply with relevant UN resolutions and implement the 12 major conventions on terror-combat.

“Any international effort will not be sufficient to effectively combat the terrorism phenomenon if not conducted within the framework of joint actions and an all-inclusive strategic vision,” the declaration said.

It also called for promoting inter-agency cooperation and coordination on national, bilateral and regional levels to combat terrorism, money laundering, weapons and explosives trafficking and drug smuggling.

The communiqué further stressed the fact that terrorism has no specific religion, ethnic origin, nationality, or geographic location.

“In this respect, it is of paramount importance to stress that any attempt to associate terrorism with any given faith will in actual fact serve the interests of terrorists; it should be rejected wholeheartedly.”

The participants further encouraged individual efforts to expand political participation, achieve sustainable development, and promote the role of civil institutions to help address the conditions that spawn violence and extremist thinking.

Since May 2003, Saudi Arabia has been battling a wave of militant attacks by presumed Al-Qaeda militants who have killed more than 100 people and wounded hundreds in a spate of bombings and shootings.

Security forces have killed or arrested most of the network’s top leaders, but analysts say the movement will remain a threat in the world’s biggest oil exporter for years.

The conference also called for developing the UN mechanisms to help the non-profit charities enhance their relief role and prevent using their funds in illegal activities.

It also urged to draw up the best means to use the money seized from “terrorists”.

“Countries were encouraged to set up domestic bodies” to deal with seized terrorists’ money, said the communiqué.

Saudi Arabia has proposed setting up an international fund from seized assets to help victims of “terrorist attacks” but the proposal was dropped by the conference, according to Arab news.

“That did not go through,” a delegate participating in the conference said on condition of anonymity.

Saudi Arabia has tightened financial regulations to stem the flow of money from wealthy Saudis to militants -- although Western officials say more could still be done.

However, Saudi charities suffered the brunt of the new measures.