President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of Indonesia, the world?s most populous Muslim nation, called on all religions yesterday to rise up against terrorism and show that faith could be a force for peace.

The former general, who took power in October, made the comments at the opening of an international religious conference aimed at sending a message of moderation in the region?s battle against violent religious radicalism.

Participants from 13 countries ranged from Buddhist monks in orange robes to Muslim muftis and Catholic cardinals. Jews, Protestants, Hindus and Confucionists were also on hand.

But one key regional player, Malaysia, was absent as the meeting opened, and organisers said not to expect too much too soon from the two-day meeting, despite Yudhoyono?s ringing words.

?We should rise up and demonstrate that religion is a force for peace,? he said after prayers by religious leaders from 10 different faiths in the ancient royal capital of Yogyakarta in Indonesia?s Muslim heartland.

?To my mind, terrorism today must be regarded as the enemy of all religions. In the end the forces of light, reason and hope must overpower the forces of darkness, despair and violence.?

Indonesia has been hit in recent years by clashes between Christians and Muslims and by a series of bloody bombings blamed on Jemaah Islamiah, a Southeast Asian militant Islamic group linked to al Qaeda and blamed for attacks throughout the region.

Terrible perversion

The deadliest blasts ripped through nightclubs on the resort island of Bali in October 2002, killing 202 people. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer and Indonesian counterpart Hassan Wirajuda are co-hosting the International Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation, organised by the foreign ministries of the two countries and Indonesia?s second-largest Muslim organisation, Muhammadiyah.

?A terrible perversion of religion, with a violent face, threatens moderate believers and moderate states in both the East and the West,? Downer said in a speech at the opening.

Australian tourists were the main victims of the Bali blasts, while in September of this year a car bomb attack outside the country?s embassy in Jakarta killed 10 people.

In Southeast Asia the predominantly Christian Philippines has been fighting Islamic rebels for decades, while largely Buddhist Thailand is struggling to cope with an increasingly restive and violent Muslim minority.

Jerry NORTON