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Lawmakers attending the Conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) agreed on Monday to focus the one-week meeting on the United States-led war against Iraq, which began on March 20.
About 1,200 delegates from 120 countries and regions in the world decided on the second day of the conference, the 108th of its kind, to issue a final statement calling for the strengthening of multilateralism and respect for the decisions of international organizations, official sources said.
Chilean President Ricardo Lagos, accompanied by the executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, Jose Ocampo, inaugurated the IPU conference on Sunday.
At the meeting, top Palestinian legislator Taysir Qobba affirmed Palestinians' support for the people of Iraq and Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, "as we would do with the leader of Iran,if it faced war."
Qobba added that postwar reconstruction of Iraq must be undertaken by the Iraqi people themselves and that must be based on legality and United Nations principles.
The delegation of Kuwait said that as a neighbor of Iraq, Kuwait supports the war against Iraq. It accused Iraq of possessing weapons of mass destruction, which it said pose a threat to neighboring countries.
The Chilean representative, Senator Sergio Romero, called on participants to put forward concrete proposals to contribute to the postwar reconstruction of Iraq.
The head of the Chinese delegation, Liu Mingzu, said the US-led invasion of Iraq will not benefit any party and that there will be no solution without the intervention of the United Nations.
Attending the IPU conference are 32 parliament leaders from countries. The Iraqi delegation canceled its participation plan two days before the meeting opened because of the US military strikes against Baghdad.
IPU president, Chilean Senator Sergio Paez Verdugo, expressed his regret at Iraq's withdrawal, the local press reported on Monday.
Participants of the IPU meeting are also expected to discuss, among other issues, democracy and socio-economic development in countries.
Launched in 1889, the 144-member IPU is the world' largest parliamentary organization, and serves as a key venue for dialogue between legislatures and for parliamentary diplomacy.
(Xinhua News Agency April 8, 2003)
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