Leaders of economies around the Pacific rim gather this week for a meeting that has evolved from an economic talk-shop into a forum for problems as wide-ranging as birdflu, trade and terrorism. The 21 leaders meeting Friday and Saturday in this port city about 420 km (260 miles) southeast of South Korea’s capital Seoul will feature two days of multilateral meetings but also the inevitable flurry of two-way talks.

The main issues on the agenda are averting a breakdown in the Doha round of the World Trade Organization (WTO) at talks due in mid-December and coming up with measures to work together if bird flu becomes a pandemic with the potential to kill millions. Although not on the agenda, the status of international efforts to end the nuclear programme of South Korea’s neighbour to the north – and what that means for the region’s stability – will overshadow all.

And many will closely watch how Japan’s prime minister is received in the group, which includes many victims of Japan’s aggression in World War Two. Junichiro Koizumi has angered many in the region by paying visits to a Tokyo war shrine that some say glorifies Japan’s militaristic past. US President George W. Bush, coming to the meeting as part of an Asian trip that includes China, Mongolia and Japan, will want to keep his war on terror high on the agenda, analysts said. Indeed, Bush was the one to put terrorism squarely on APEC’s plate at the 2001 summit in Shanghai soon after the Sept. 11 attacks, altering the nature of the forum, perhaps forever. “It (the meeting) has ... taken on a much more political slant in recent years since Sept. 11. It has become a much more mature forum,” said Ralph Cossa, head of the Hawaii-based Pacific Forum CSIS think-tank. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum opened officially at the weekend and will bring foreign ministers together in the middle of the week. But the highlight is the summit.

<B>Jon HERSKOVITZ</B>