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The Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa has appealed to the eight-member South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) to adopt a joint, multi-pronged approach to terrorism.

Speaking at the opening session of the SAARC summit in New Delhi on Tuesday, Rajapaksa said: "Unless we act collectively as a region, trans-border terrorist groups will find safe havens in other parts of the region."

"Modern day terrorists operate in a multi-dimensional fashion. They operate politically, militarily, financially and ideologically."

"Therefore, our effort to curb this menace, should be multi pronged, sustained and far-reaching, and must include their sources of sustenance."

National security had to be given top priority, Rajapaksa said.

"No country can sustain itself and flourish without addressing the need to maintain security, and no country could afford to limit their resolve to the eradication of terrorism to a mere subset of national security."

"The recent air attack at Katunayake (Sri Lankan Air Force base) by the LTTE, must attract attention of all of us to the fact our region as a whole is not safe from the barbaric terrorists," Rajapaksa submitted.

"I wish to appeal therefore to this august forum to work jointly    on a counter-terrorism strategy for our entire region, to defeat terrorism," he said.

Action not words

The Sri Lankan President appealed to SAARC to go beyond expressing pious intentions and making polite remarks, and take concrete actions to implement the resolutions made.

"I am a strong believer in practicality. While endorsing and fully subscribing to the values of SAARC, we badly need to be action-oriented rather than be dependent on rhetoric."

"Merely saying good things about each other and ignoring the reality will take us nowhere. Therefore, all what we have endorsed over the years must, without delay, be transformed into action," Rajapaksa said.

Minister defects

While President Rajapaksa was away in India attending the SAARC summit, the Deputy Minister of Railways, Edward Gunasekara, defected to the opposition United National Party (UNP).

This is the first time during Rajapaksa's one year of Presidency that a ruling group   MP or Minister, has defected to the opposition. Earlier, opposition MPs had defected in large numbers to the government.

Gunasekara had been one of the defectors from the UNP to the government side along with stalwarts like Karu Jayasuriya, Milinda Moragoda and GL Peiris.

It is not clear as to why Gunasekara broke ranks and went back to the UNP.