Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday asserted that the Asia-Pacific region is powerful enough to inject safe ingredients into world economic security.

This region has great economic potential as well as economic and financial powers to contribute to the safety of the global economy, Putin said in an address to the ongoing APEC CEO Summit 2001.

The economic potential of this region relies on huge investment that has been pumped into APEC economies during the past years, according to the Russian president who arrived in Shanghai on Thursday to attend the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting today.

Putin confirmed Russia's commitments to worldwide free trade by saying that Russia stands, above all, for the further integration and liberalization of the world economy and for the lifting of barriers to trade and investment.

Russia is creating a stable political environment for its economic development, Putin said.

"No one is willing to put money into a place that is not stable," he said, adding that the mainstream of Russian society has realized the importance of political stability to economic development.

Political stability is both the natural foundation for an economy and the way Russia has to take towards liberty, democracy and a market economy, Putin said.

The political stability also helps increase the flow of capital, he added.

Capital that originally fled Russia has begun to come back from countries including Cyprus, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States.

"It is a good signal for us," Putin said.

Turning to the anti-terrorism issue which will be also be discussed on the leaders' agenda, Putin urged an early establishment of a global anti-terrorism legal framework.

Such a system should be established as soon as possible so that the criteria for terrorism could be more clearly defined and the international community could make a quick response to any threat to world peace, Putin said.

There is not a single nation in the world that has given a clear-cut definition on terrorism, Putin said. "It has prevented us from responding quickly to terrorist acts," he added.

Putin predicted that the struggle against terrorism and other new threats to the world must be conducted in a comprehensive way and on a long-term basis.

He said international institutions should play their roles in this fight.

(Xinhua News Agency 10/20/2001)