Sunday, July 10 2005 13:53 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

New Delhi: A collective strategy needs to be evolved to free the world from the scourge of terrorism, which is now a global phenomenon, as seen in the recent London blasts, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said today (July 10, 2005).

"This (London Blasts) is a vivid demonstration that terrorism is a global phenomenon. We have suffered from this scourge for nearly 20-25 years. The blasts is a demonstration that all of us will have to work together to evolve a collective strategy to free the world from this scourge," Singh said in a statement on his visit to UK.

The Prime Minister said he attended a meeting of Group of Five countries -- India, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and China -- in Scotland where a consensus emerged on working towards reforming the international trading system, transfer of resources to developing countries and transfer of technologies from the rich to poor nations.

He said during his meeting with G-8 leaders he expressed concern on the way the international system was functioning and paying inadequate attention to needs of poor countries.

"I laid emphasis on reform of the international system and ensuring that the forthcoming Doha round of trade negotiation becomes generally a development round," Singh said.

The Prime Minister said he also laid emphasis on the fact that all countries of the world have an obligation to work together to find credible ways to protect and preserve the environment and the essential life support system of the planet.

"But I also said this must be done mindful of developmental imperatives of poor nations," Singh said adding this must be done mindful of the development imperatives that the problems that we face in the management of environment cannot be resolved by perpetuating the problems of poor developing countries.

He said, "We have to reconcile the imperative of development with the imperative of makkng development sustainable. This requires action on the part of the developed countries to ensure that trading system is fair, capital transfer to developing countries more adequate and arrangement are made for transfer of clean technologies at reasonable costs."

The Prime Minister said it would be India's effort to work together to work with like-minded countries to ensure that its views find adequ:e reflection in whatever decisions are taken with regard to climate change.