In a snipe at the United States, leaders of the Non-Aligned Movement denounced the "axis of evil" label for member states Iraq, Iran and North Korea, describing the tag as "a form of psychological and political terrorism."
Without naming the United States or President George W. Bush who coined the phrase last year leaders of the group said in a summit statement that the label was used by "a certain State to target other countries on the pretext of combatting terrorism."
The leaders of the 116 member nations "strongly condemned any labeling of countries as good or evil and repressive based on unilateral and unjustified criteria."
"These actions constitute, on their part, a form of psychological and political and political terrorism."
The two-day summit of mainly developing countries, representing 55 percent of the world's population, was chaired by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, an influential Muslim leader who has emerged as one of Asia's most outspoken critics on the US threat of war to disarm Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction.
In their report, the leaders called for UN conferences to identify the root causes and definition of terrorism, and of distinguishing terrorists from fighters seeking national liberation. In an apparent reference to Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands, the leaders denounced the "brutalization" of people under foreign occupation as the "gravest form of terrorism."
The leaders said that criminal acts provoking a state of terror should be rejected, no matter who carried them out or their reasons. They also condemned international terrorism as a danger to "territorial integrity as well as national and international security."
The leaders urged member countries to refrain from "organizing, assisting or participating" in terrorists acts in other countries and for greater cooperation in the prosecution and extradition of terrorists.
Though he has been an outspoken critic of US preparations to launch a war in Iraq, Mahathir is considered by Washington to be a close ally in the war against terrorism, jailing about 80 suspected Islamic extremist terror suspects since mid-2001.
Mahathir's attempt at a conference of Islamic nations last year to brand all acts of violence against civilians including Palestinian suicide bombings was rejected.
AP