Saturday, July 2 2005 11:24 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Moscow: In a veiled attack on the US, the Presidents of Russia and China yesterday (July 1, 2005) warned nations against making attempts to "monopolise" world affairs and stressed for the central role of the United Nations without any diktat.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his visiting Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao also signed several bilateral agreements to boost cooperation in the fields of energy and trade after two days of talks at Kremlin.

Each nation should address its domestic affairs independently, while international affairs "through dialogue and consultations based on multilateral collective approaches," a joint declaration issued at the end of their talks said in Moscow.

"The international community should also abandon confrontational and blocking strategies, an aspiration for monopoly and domination in international affairs, and give up attempts to divide countries into the leaders and the led," it said in a veiled attack on the US unilateralism as the world's sole superpower in the post-Cold War era.

The declaration on the World Order in the 21st Century signed by Putin and Hu said that Russia and China saw reform of the UN as a way "to consolidate its central role in international affairs, make it more effective and increase its ability to respond to new threats and challenges."

"Globalisation is developing in an unbalanced way and widens the gap between developed nations and regions, and the rest of the world," it stated.

Russia and China also agreed that any efforts to cause a split between sovereign countries were unacceptable.