The Non-Aligned Movement pre-summit meeting of foreign ministers opened in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday with a strong assertion that the United Nations should be responsible for disarming Iraq if it possessed weapons of mass destruction.

"There is no question that Iraq must continue to comply with UN Resolution 1441 and allow the inspectors unlimited and unconditional access. Iraq must be disarmed if it possesses weapons of mass destruction," South Africa's Foreign Minister Dlamini Zuma said in her opening speech.

"The question is, how best to achieve this. We believe that it is possible and desirable that we do this through peaceful means. The United Nations must be the one that does it as it is charged with our collective security in line with the principles contained in the UN Charter. We must assert the centrality of the UN in settling such matters," Zuma said.

Asserting multilateralism is critical 'for our very survival', Zuma, whose country is the outgoing chair of NAM, said the clouds of war also divert the attention of the world away from key question of development, which will ensure sustainable peace and security for the generations to come.

Noting that globalisation has inequitable benefits for the world, she said the rich and powerful get the lion's share of its benefits.

She urged the international community to implement the UN's Millennium Declaration and outcome of the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR), the Financing for Development conferences, the Doha Development Round, the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD).

Zoma later handed the chair of NAM to Malaysia, which will head the grouping for the next three years.

Taking over the chair, Malaysia Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi also asserted that NAM should work towards bringing about a multilateral new world order.

"The present international order threatens to push aside multilateral diplomacy and allow unilateral pre-emption to determine the security of the world. The credibility of multilateral institutions like the UN was called into question by certain nations because it will yield to unilateral designs."

"The relevance of NAM is an urgent challenge for our collective membership to face," he said, adding NAM must go
beyond its traditional concerns and address issues like effects of globalisation on developing countries and the international trade regime.

He also urged the 116-member grouping to address issues like the threat of terrorism, external debt, role of media, increased use of information and communications technology, poverty, South-South cooperation and dangerous diseases like HIV and AIDS.