Saudi Arabia has signed an agreement with the United Nations to create the UN Centre for Counter Terrorism.

The agreement was signed yesterday by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister and Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations, at the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Saudi Arabia will contribute $10 million over the next three years to set up the anti-terrorism centre. The Kingdom will also work to foster international cooperation, strengthen individual countries' capacity-building efforts and build up a database of best practices to fight terrorism, a statement said.

"The centre will go a long way in countering terrorism around the world," said Ki-moon. "What I see here today is the start of a new era in counterterrorism cooperation. States recognize that they cannot go it alone."

Prince Saud and the Secretary-General then attended an international symposium on ways to fight terrorism through international cooperation, which was attended by foreign ministers of more than 20 countries. Both expressed their hope for the centre's role in combating terrorism.

"Terrorism has no religion," said Prince Saud. "There are more than 1.5 billion Muslims in different parts of the world who represent an age-old culture that calls for peace, cooperation and tolerance." – TradeArabia News Service