THE Prime Minister, Mr A B Vajpayee, on Wednesday strongly favoured the Non-Aligned : Movement (NAM) evolving a new agenda for developing nations and asked member-countries to re-assert their unity by taking common positions on core issues of peace, disarmament and development.

The Prime Minister, who will attend the NAM summit in Durban next week, cautioned , that efforts to press particularist regional or sub-regional agenda beyond a point could adversely affect an overall South solidarity.

Vajpayee, who touched on issues that would figure prominently at the two-day summit, stressed: "It is more essential than ever to maintain and reinforce NAM's traditional thrust on nuclear disarmament."

'Calling for a unified response from NAM countries on issues like nuclear disarmament, steps; to combat terrorism and negotiations in the World Trade organisation (WTO), Vajpayee said NAM should ensure that its concerns were placed squarely at the centre of the global agenda.

Reiterating India's commitment to disarmament and elimination of nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework, Vajpayee warned that a monopoly of nuclear weapons with five countries could not be a stable basis for a world nuclear order.

Defending the Pokharan nuclear tests, Vajpayee said it had in no way detracted India from its longstanding commitment to disarmament and urged the NAM to press hard for the establishment of a nuclear weapons convention. He said that New Delhi would continue to support initiatives in this area including the call by NAM for the launching of negotiations for a nuclear weapons convention in the conference of disarmament.

"Pokhran-II has demonstrated India's capability and, in this sense, has shown that a monopoly of nuclear weapons with five countries cannot be a stable basis for a world nuclear order," Vajpayee said.

Stating that NAM had consistently emphasised the imperative necessity of making progress towards a time-bound framework for a nuclear weapons free world, he said that the grouping had strongly supported establishment of a nuclear weapons convention.

"NAM is committed to negotiating such a convention that would be universal, non-discriminatory, verifiable and legally binding, as in the case of conventions on chemical and biological weapons," Vajpayee said.

He stressed that "at a time when opinion in the West including nuclear weapon states is veering towards this view, it is more essential than ever to maintain and reinforce NAM's traditional thrust on nuclear disarmament."

Stating that the priorities of NAM continued to be core issues of peace, disarmament and development Vajpayee remarked these could be achieved only through solidarity, collectivism, tolerance and popularism.

"Intolerance and conflict can lead us nowhere. Instead of frittering away energies in disputes, NAM countries should work together so that the common agenda of promoting and achieving peace, disarmament and development could be carried forward with full vigour," he said.

Vajpayee said the nineties had demonstrated the continued relevance of NAM even as the majority of developing countries, which constituted its membership, faced new challenges and opportunities in the post-cold war world.

He underlined the need for NAM to deal with these challenges "from a position of strength that is underpinned by their solidarity."

Calling for a unified response from NAM countries on issues like nuclear disarmament, combating terrorism, negotiations in the World Trade Organisation and environment, Vajpayee said the grouping should reassert their unity and solidarity for common positions. He said there was a pressing need for NAM members to develop "a new agenda for the South", behind which all members should unite.

"To ensure a broad acceptance and solidarity, such an agenda need to include all the major concerns of countries of the South, notwithstanding the varying degree of interest and commitment" that they individually might be facing, he said.

Stating the global economic situation had evolved considerably since the NAM called for a new international economic order, the Prime Minister noted that the first and second oil crises in 1973 and 1979 and the debt crisis of the 80s had severely weakened many NAM countries.

This had provided the developed states the opportunity to effectively stall progress in North-South dialogue, he remarked.

Focussing on the need for NAM to come together, Vajpayee said this could enhance their capability to negotiate with interlocutors from the North on major global issues including international trade in goods and services, resources for development especially financial flows, and the role of international financial institutions, systemic issues that include institutional and UN reforms and environment. Asking NAM to facilitate the development of a new agenda for the South, he said leaders from these countries should create the necessary political will for its effective implementation. The agenda would deal with issues relating to governance of global economy, international trade in goods and services, resource flows for development, technology flows that were not restricted by intellectual property rights and commercial considerations and revitalisation of South-South cooperation, he said.

Vajpayee said while regional groupings among developing countries could certainly strengthen the solidarity of the South, on the other hand, efforts to press particularist regional or sub-regional agendas beyond a point could not but have an adverse effect on overall-South solidarity.

Recalling Pandit Nehru's observation that India's freedom would not be complete till economic freedom was attained by all former colonies, he said this concept continued to retain its validity even today.

India despite being a country that received assistance from developed countries, Vajpayee said it had always offered to share its experience and expertise with other developing countries through an extensive programme of economic and technical cooperation that included training, provision of experts, setting up of projects and other forms of technical and financial assistance.

Noting that most members of NAM had developed capabilities in diverse fields such as agriculture, industry, infrastructure, technology and services, he said these developments could give a new orientation to the potential of South-South cooperation.

Such cooperation had to be so designed as to ensure that all countries benefited from the increasing capabilities through enhanced regional cooperation, trade expansion, joint ventures, technical collaboration and other forms of transfer of technology, experience and skills, Vajpayee said. India which had made spectacular advances in the field of science and technology was encouraging such institutions in NAM countries to enter into networking arrangements for mutual benefit, he said. He hoped the Bretton Woods Institution would participate constructively in the preparatory process for a high level inter-governmental conference on financing for development, which could show the way forward.