APEC summit ends with pledges and commitments but few facts. Another South Korean farmer commits suicide to protest market liberalisation.

Pusan (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The 21 leaders from the Asia-Pacific Rim countries have announced a series of joint initiatives to combat bird flu.

"We agreed on collective practical measures, including strengthening cooperation and technical assistance among APEC economies to limit influenza at its source and prevent human outbreaks," the leaders said in the final statement.

The APEC summit came to an end amidst protests. But only 10,000 instead of the hoped-for 100,000 demonstrators were in streets of the South Korean port city of Pusan where the summit was held, most of them farmers protesting against farm sector liberalisation, which, they fear would penalise them

For the second time in a week a farmer committed suicide to protest.  O Choo-ok, a 41-year-old woman farmer, was pronounced dead early in the morning at the Catholic University Hospital in the south-eastern city of Daegu from drinking poison. Last week, Chong Yong-pum, 38, died the same way for the same reasons.

"APEC is an interest group of advanced countries" said Lee Hyo-shin, 42, of the Korea Peasant's League. "The United States wants to make us dependant."

Although preparing for a possible bird flu pandemic, fighting terrorism and North Korea's nuclear programme were on the agenda, market liberalisation dominated discussions on the first day of the summit. Human rights and health care, especially the bird flu, took a back seat.

Never the less, human rights came to the fore when US President George W. Bush asked his colleagues for a tougher stance against Myanmar, which he called an "outpost of brutality".

With Japanese Prime Minister Koizumi announcing that Japan would offer US$ 100 million, the fight against the bird flu also took centre stage.

For the rest, the Pusan summit was largely taken up by bilateral meetings between the leaders. Bush and Russian President Putin discussed the nuclear stand-off in Iran and North Korea.

Mr Bush tried to convince his Russian counterpart to stop helping Tehran build the atomic bomb, and offered Russia a seat in the World Trade Organisation to induce him to join the US in convincing Pyongyang to stop its nuclear military programme.

• apec
• asia-pacifi
• rim
• countries
• south
• korea
• pusan
• united
• staets
• russia
• japan
• protesters
• suicide
• farmers