UNITED NATIONS - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan warned world leaders on Monday that the war against terrorism must go beyond simply fighting extremists but also hold out the promise of a "better and fairer world."

Annan told more than 20 heads of state at the conference that human rights violations, like targeted assassinations, which Israel has carried out against Palestinian militants, as well as civilian deaths from off-target bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq ran the risk of winning over converts and spurring new terrorist acts.

Annan opened an international conference on terrorism only hours after U.N. headquarters in Baghdad was attacked for a second time, wounding 19 people, including two Iraqi U.N. workers, and killing a security guard. The first attack on Aug. 19 killed 22 people, including senior staff.

"Terrorism will only be defeated if we act to solve the political dispute and long-standing conflicts which generate support for it," Annan said. "If we do not, we shall find ourselves acting as a recruiting sergeant for the very terrorists we seek to suppress."

Annan told more than 20 heads of state at the conference that human rights violations, like targeted assassinations, which Israel has carried out against Palestinian militants, as well as civilian deaths from off-target bombings in Afghanistan and Iraq ran the risk of winning over converts and spurring new terrorist acts.

"Paradoxically, terrorist groups may actually be sustained when, in responding to their outrages, governments cross the line and commit outrages themselves -- whether it is ethnic cleansing, the indiscriminate bombardment of cities, the torture of prisoners, targeted assassinations or accepting the death of innocent civilians as 'collateral damage," Annan said.

"These acts are not only illegal and unjustifiable. They may also be exploited by terrorists to gain new followers and to generate cycles of violence in which they thrive," he added.

The summit at a New York hotel was scheduled on the eve of a two-week high-level session of the 191-nation U.N. General Assembly, due to open on Tuesday which is expected to focus on terrorism and post-war Iraq.

President Bush was invited to the conference but the administration sent Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as its representative while Colin Powell will be at U.N. headquarters addressing an AIDS summit.

Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, one of the conference sponsors, said the goal of the meeting, launched two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, was "to shed new light on the roots of terror" in search of a new generation of tools to use against "this evil."

"The rule of law and respect for human rights are the first and the best way to counter terrorism," the Norwegian said. "We must provide outlets for human ambitions, for hopes and beliefs, but also for anger and grief."

He stressed the need for governments and private groups to work with educators and religious leaders to ensure children are raised in ways that promote tolerance and mutual respect rather than hate.

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf dismissed the idea of a "militant Islam" as being at the root of the problem, saying, "There are only some 'militant Muslims' -- as there are militant Hindus, Christians and Jews."

"Most of the political disputes of our times afflict Islamic peoples and nations," he said. "Religious extremism and militancy have risen because these conflicts have been allowed to fester. There is a feeling in the Muslim world that Islam is being targeted."

"This widening gulf of perceptions between the West and the Islamic world must be bridged," he said, calling on the West to seek to better understand Islam and on the Muslim world to reject extremist laws and practices.

Copyright 2003 Reuters Ltd

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