Manila -- Senior Asian police officers and security experts gathered in the Philippines capital, Manila, on Tuesday for the 18th INTERPOL Asian Regional Conference. High on the agenda are security and policing issues facing Asian countries.

The two day conference will discuss ways to support regional and national police forces in the fight against terrorism and international crime through INTERPOL's communications services, databases and other specialised programs and projects.

More than 90 delegates from 37 countries in INTERPOL's Asian region are attending, as well as 25 observers from countries outside the region who have also travelled to Manila for the talks.

INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald K. Noble told the opening session the recent terrorist attacks in Madrid showed that increased police co-operation and information sharing were becoming ever more important.

'Just a few days ago we were once again brutally reminded that the type of attacks that Al Qaeda-like terrorist groups use are among the most troubling to us as law enforcement officials and to us as a world community,' Mr. Noble said. 'No region of the world is exempt and no region has been spared'.

'We can and must do more. We should not lose the opportunity to co-operate more, each and every day. During this conference we hope to identify concrete steps each of us can take to work together more effectively'.

The Chief of the Philippines National Police, Director General Hermogenes E. Ebdane Jr, said: 'Never has the adage 'no man is an island' been so relevant and true. As we in the ASEAN region have experienced, the sharing of information and expertise has been the biggest factor for the progress we have made as a collective force against terrorism, and other crimes that threaten individual lives and sovereignty'.

The Manila conference will also focus on increasing police use of INTERPOL's range of criminal databases, as well as ways to improve the exchange of police data in the Asian region. INTERPOL's new global communications system, I-24/7, uses state of the art technology with secured Internet connections for heavily encrypted criminal data and police messages.

INTERPOL is the largest international police organisation in the world, with National Central Bureaus in 181 member countries. It was founded in 1923 to foster police co-operation and to combat trans-national crime.