Newmexican.com: Poverty, Middle East conflict top agenda for Nonaligned Movement summit in Cuba

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Poverty, Middle East conflict top agenda for Nonaligned Movement summit in Cuba

Poverty, health care and the Middle East conflict top the agenda for the weeklong summit of the global Nonaligned Movement in Cuba that began Monday and will culminate with the meeting of 50 heads of state, including anti-American leaders Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The movement, which includes about two-thirds of the world's nations, was developed during the Cold War as a Third World alternative to the United States and Soviet Union. Diplomats say it has lost direction in recent years, but expect the Cuban leadership to deepen the bond between member nations that share similar social and economic struggles.

Formed in 1961, the movement has survived long after the Soviet Union's collapse. Today, many of the members are united in a shared distaste for U.S. foreign policy. Leaders like Ahmadinejad and Chavez, who arrive later in the week, are expected to use the summit to blast the "imperialist" world view of U.S. President George W. Bush. But other countries attending say they are not interested in battering the United States. Nations like India and South Africa are improving relations with the U.S. and aren't willing to point fingers at the Bush administration.

Organizers final declaration will reject all terrorism against civilian populations, including "state terrorism" in a statement that will chastise Israel and the United States for invasions in Lebanon and Iraq. And many nations want to send a sharp message to the developed world that wealthy countries need to do more to share the finite resources and respect the rights of all countries to determine their own governments and economic systems.Raul Castro presiding over the non-alligned summit said: "When there no longer is a Cold War, the United States spends one billion dollars a year in weapons and soldiers and it squanders a similar amount in commercial publicity," he said. "To think that a social and economic order that has proven unsustainable could be maintained by force is simply an absurd idea."