News: Sri Lanka for single currency for South Asia

(IANS 03/04/2007) New Delhi - Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapakse Tuesday urged SAARC to come out with a single currency like in Europe and also unveil a regional counter-terrorism strategy. Speaking at the opening of the two-day summit here, Rajapakse said unlike European countries that have come together despite major differences in culture and religion, "I am particularly concerned that SAARC has not (come together). "It is also high time we have a single currency to ... improve trade without barriers," he said. Rajapakse referred to the March 26 air attack by the Tamil Tigers on Sri Lanka's main air base near Colombo, saying it had caught the attention of "all of us" and compared it with "barbaric terrorism". He said it was necessary for the entire region to have a joint counter-terrorist strategy. He quickly added that while terrorism needed to be suppressed, the challenge of terror also required to be met politically. "Terrorism anywhere is terrorism, and is a global menace," Rajapakse said. He said unless the world viewed terrorism in this light, terrorists would find safe havens in other parts of the region. He warned that modern day terrorists operated militarily, politically, financially and ideologically. So the efforts to take on terrorists should also be multi-pronged, he added. Rajapakse said SAARC was "at a critical point" and went on to remind the leaders of South Asia that most people in the region lived in rural areas. "Haven't we neglected the majority of our people? The rural poor?" he asked, calling upon leaders of the eight-nation regional grouping to "deliver now (and) not wait for the future. "We badly need an action oriented programme, rather than rhetoric. Merely saying things about each other and ignoring the reality will take us nowhere... The time has come to move away from fancy rhetoric."