Some 200 ministers, officials, and religious and community leaders from 37 countries and two organisations out of the 45 Asem members recommended more discussions between different faiths at the local, national, regional and international levels.

The meeting recommended that members hold joint inter-faith meetings, possibly in the context of the Asem counter-terrorism meeting.

They also called on religious communities to play a more effective role in conflict prevention and resolution, and in fostering justice, peace building and sustainable development. They should also educate their members on common responsibilities to promote security.

"Interfaith dialogue is conducive to a more peaceful world and could add to social cohesion," said Italian Foreign Ministry under-secretary of state Gianni Vernetti, who co-chaired the dialogue with his Chinese counterpart, Assistant Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai.

Religious dialogue is included in security discussions as certain groups use religion as a pretext to justify terrorism.

The first Asem Interfaith Dialogue held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali in 2005 was a direct reaction to terrorist attacks in London on July 2005 and Bali in October 2002 that killed hundreds of people.

The Nanjing meeting condemned the instrumental use of religious symbols and cultural or ethnic values to generate conflicts, to start wars or to justify terrorism.

The Nanjing Statement also called on Asem members to respect religious freedom and social diversity.

However, a number of Asem members have previously suppressed unregistered or unrecognised beliefs. China has banned the Falungong sect and in Vietnam certain groups of Christians and Buddhists are subjected to harassment.

Chinese assistant foreign minister Cui said his government would honour and implement all commitments made in the Nanjing Statement.

"China has laws to protect religious beliefs but the evil cults that act against societal norms will be banned," he told reporters. "And every country should ban such evil cults," the minister added.

Vietnamese delegates handed out booklets at the meeting to show that the communist country respects freedom of belief. But the documents made no mention of recent arrests of Buddhist monks and Catholic priests.

Thailand and the Netherlands will co-chair the next Interfaith Dialogue, which will be held in Amsterdam in the first week of June 2008. A delegate from the Netherlands said the heads of delegations at the meeting would be made up of equal numbers of males and females to respect the gender equality assurances made in the Nanjing Statement.

Supalak G Khundee

The Nation

Nanjing, China