MADRID, Spain - Governments afflicted by extremist violence must address its causes if they hope to defeat it, not just strike back as the United States has done, say experts who will take part in a world conference on terrorism in Madrid this week.

The general tone of the conference will not be at all sympathetic to what the Bush administration has been up to.

Charles Powell, a history professor at San Pablo-CEU University in Madrid

Those causes include poverty, religious intolerance and failures to integrate a swelling tide of immigrants.

"The consensus ... is a 'soft' power approach based on prevention - not like the United States has in mind, but (rather) with engagement with North African Muslim nations, economic development, assimilating and integrating immigrants into host nations," Charles Powell, a history professor at San Pablo-CEU University in Madrid, said in an interview.

The conference, which runs from Tuesday to Friday, brings together world leaders including U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and various heads of government or state, as well as about 180 experts from 50 countries

Annan is to deliver a major statement on terrorism on Thursday.

Discussions the first two days will focus on political, economic, religious and cultural explanations of terrorism, and appropriate police, intelligence and military responses.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is a key topic, along with democracy-building in the Arab world and the need to confront sometimes horrific attacks on defenseless civilians in ways that don't undermine traditions of civil liberties and rights.

"I believe (the conference) is going to support the European style and not put force first; rather, only as the last resort," said Andres Ortega, director of the Spanish edition of Foreign Policy magazine. Ortega will be one of the panelists at the conference.

Haizam Amirah Fernandez, an analyst at the Real Instituto Elcano think tank and also a conference panelist, said in a separate interview that's because Europe is geographically close to Middle East hot spots, has historical ties and significant immigration from Muslim countries, and - unlike the United States - has relatively little military power.

Also, there is resistance to the use of force among Europeans who still remember the suffering of two devastating world wars and the Spanish Civil War, and among European Union countries big and small trying to devise fair economic and political rules for all.

"Europe is looking for more stability while the United States is less fearful of change," even if that involves great risk, Fernandez said. "The value systems don't always coincide."

The conference, organized by the Club de Madrid group of former heads of government, is timed to coincide with the anniversary of last year's train bombing in Madrid, which killed 191 passengers and bystanders and wounded more than 1,500.

The government of Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has declared March 11 a day of national mourning.

Russia is sending the head of its national security council, Igor Ivanov, to the conference, while Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will represent the United States. The latter is a last-minute upgrade by U.S. officials who are apparently worried the conference might harshly criticize President Bush for policies including the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

"The general tone of the conference will not be at all sympathetic to what the Bush administration has been up to," Powell said.

However, Fernandez noted that cooperation among Western allies is more fruitful than divisive wrangling. "No conflict or problem of global dimension can be resolved without the United States," he said. "But the United States can't resolve these on its own, either."

© Copyright 2005 Associated Press

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