New York: India has called for a unified international response to terrorism, and sought that terrorists, their ideologues and financiers be denied access to arms, funds, means of transporting their deadly goods, as well as safe havens.

"We have argued for over a decade, and we continue to believe that agreement on a Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism (CCIT) should have been a first step in any consolidated counter-terrorism effort within the United Nations," Indian Ambassador to UN Nirupam Sen told the Security Council Wednesday. Joining the debate in the Security Council on "threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts", Sen also emphasised the need to strengthen democratic and secular forces across the world to stem the scourge of terrorism.

One reason the CCIT is held up is that the member states have not agreed on the definition of terrorism. But Sen said the world does not need a philosophical definition. "Current proposals address effectively the question of offences governed by International Humanitarian Law and those governed by the Convention," he said, stressing that what is now needed is the political will to conclude the CCIT.

Arguing that terrorism has grown steadily through the 20th century to become one of the leading strategic, political and developmental challenges of the 21st century, Sen said India s advocacy of international cooperation to fight the threat of terrorism predates most measures taken by the Security Council or the General Assembly, and it even predates serious consideration of the issue within the UN.

Summing up India s efforts to curb terrorism, Sen said, they "run the gamut of efforts from surveillance methods governed by law, monitoring of financial flows and effective legislation regarding dual use items, to old fashioned police investigation work."

Source : IANS