A special UN Security Council session unanimously passed two resolutions on Wednesday, calling all nations to prohibit incitement to terrorism, and to prevent internal crises from spilling over into armed conflicts.

Leaders of the 15 Council members, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, US President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, attended the rare high-level meeting of the UN Security Council.

The meeting, chaired by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo, whose country holds the council presidency for September, took place after the opening of the UN summit, attended by 153 heads of state and government and high-ranking officials from nearly 40 other countries.

The British-sponsored draft resolution called on all nations " to prohibit by law incitement to commit a terrorist act or acts, to prevent such conduct," and to deny safe haven to anyone seriously considered to be guilty of such conduct.

It also called for the international cooperation "to counter violent extremist ideologies, including steps to prevent the subversion of educational, cultural, and religious institutions by terrorists and their supporters."

The other resolution, from Algeria, Benin and Tanzania, called for greater UN effort to prevent internal crises from spilling over into armed conflicts and to prevent conflicts that have been settled from reigniting.

The resolution particularly put focus on Africa, calling for an effective partnership for peace and development between the Council and the African Union.

"Terrorism constitutes a direct attack on the values the UN stands for: the rule of law; the protection of civilians; peaceful resolution of conflicts; and mutual respect between people of different faiths and cultures," UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said at the meeting.

"We must thus be at the forefront in the fight against terrorism," he noted.

On top of the strategy is to dissuade disaffected groups from choosing terrorism as a tactic, Annan said, adding that the international community should complete a comprehensive convention that outlaws terrorism in all its forms.

"We have a solemn obligation to stop terrorism at its early stages," Bush told the session. "We must do all we can to disrupt each stage of planning and support for terrorist tactics."

Bush said the United States supports the need to improve the ability of the African Union and sub-regional organizations to deploy both civilian and military assets to prevent the unjust armed conflicts.

"Terrorism won't be defeated until our determination is as complete as theirs, our defense of freedom is as absolute as theirs is of fanaticism," Blair told the council, adding that " they play on our divisions, exploit our hesitations."

Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin, and heads of state or government from Algeria, Argentina, Benin, Brazil, Denmark, Greece, Romania, and Tanzania also attended the session.

Source: Xinhua