Blair said that the US-Sino talks on the Military Maritime Consultative Agreement in Shanghai last week were "a very good set of talks," which focused on the way both sides cooperate in tracking the movements of ships and aircraft in this part of the world.

"We need to have an understanding on both sides," Blair said, referring to the fact that an agreement on individual working discussions of Pacific function topics has been reached between the two sides.

He said the follow-up activities are also very positive. The forces of the US Pacific Command will take part in a search and rescue exercise with the Hong Kong Garrison and the People's Liberation Army, to work out ways in which the two sides can coordinate their responses of people in distress.

Blair believes that there will be more military and cross-border contacts in US military relations with China.

Most of the really meaningful activities in the war against terrorism now are actual operations against terrorist groups, and the intelligence exchanges with both Chinese mainland and Hong Kong are a significant part of this, Blair said.

"Right now, we are trying to build up a picture of the terrorist network activities in this part of the world and we are taking specific actions in order to arrest and disrupt terrorist financial or logistic support that needs cooperation with both the Hong Kong government and the Chinese government," he said.

Speaking of the fight against terrorism, Blair said countries in the Asia-Pacific region agree that terrorism should be rooted out and campaigned against internationally, but that the question was finding the most effective way to do it.

"We have to have unprecedented cooperation among governments' police, military, intelligence and financial organizations, and cooperation across governments. That is the key to winning in this part of the world," he said.

Blair arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday to participate in a meeting organized by the Center for Strategic International Studies.

(China Daily April 19, 2002)