Ministers wrangle

Press, 13 February 1981, Page 6

Ministers wrangle

NZPA-Reuter New Delhi Non-aligned Foreign Ministers make a final effort today to preserve in a common declaration the uneasy unity of the 96member movement Their four-day meeting is due to end today. But a conference spokesman, speaking as hard bargaining went on behind closed doors to hammer out a final declaration, said it might be extended until this afternoon. He said the conference was moving towards a consensus on most contentious issues, which include the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, Vietnam’s milita-' ry presence in Kampuchea and the Iran-Iraq war. Delegation sources said the declaration was expected to call for a political settlement in Afghanistan based on the withdrawal of foreign troops and an end to all foreign interferences in Afghan affairs.

The U.N. Secretary-Gener- 1 al (Dr Kurt Waldheim) told ! the conference yesterday 1 that a United Nations under- - secretary, Javier Perez De • Cuellar, .would be his personal representative to fa- : cilitate negotiations -between 1 Afghanistan and its neighbours, Pakistan, and Iran. On Kampuchea, delegates said the Ministers/ were trying to reconcile the views of .Vietnam, which wants no m Kampuchea, and those of nqn-Gommunist South-east Asian countries, ■•which called hn the conferenceto cop emn Hanoi.