Asian women leaders take terror, debt woes to UN

Philippine President Gloria Arroyo spoke at the UN summit meeting on Thursday, making a pitch for a debt-equity swap for developing nations besieged by soaring oil prices, terrorism, and mounting foreign debts.

"We are not asking for debt forgiveness or debt cancellation," she said.

"What we propose is that the debt service or principal amount should be converted into equities in new (poverty-busting) projects of at least equal value and with their own potential earnings."

The Philippines spends one-third of its national budget every year to pay the interest on some 55 billion dollars in external debt.

In a rare honour, Arroyo chaired a Security Council meeting Wednesday that condemned "in the strongest terms" all acts of terrorism as one of the most serious threats to global peace and security.

She became the first Filipino leader, the first Asian head of state and the first woman leader to preside over the powerful forum.

A US-trained economist and daughter of a former president, Arroyo came to power through a bloodless, military-backed "people power" revolt in 2001.

She now faces a tough battle trying to stem a more than two decades old Muslim insurgency in the southern Philippines, as well as communist rebels. Both the groups have been labelled terrorist organisations by the United States.

Sri Lankan leader Chandrika Kumaratunga on Thursday highlighted to the world's leaders her country's three-decade long struggle in attempting to tame the island's Tamil Tigers rebel group.

Her government, she said, has made "considerable efforts under difficult circumstances" to forge peace with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebels, but "this process of engagement and accommodation does not seem to have persuaded this group to move away from terrorism."

Washington considers the Tamil Tigers a terrorist group.