Declaring that the countries in the South Asian region must win the war against all forms of extremism and intolerance, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday said that an all out war must be waged against poverty, ignorance and disease afflicting the region.

Addressing the concluding ceremony of the 14th South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation, Singh said "We must resolve our differences and we must enhance regional cooperation. We must also win the war against all forms of extremism and intolerance in our region".

Observing that New Delhi has occupied the chair at an important moment, he said though the region has been transformed in the last half century, "yet, we face the challenge of being home to the largest concentration of poor and illiterate people."

"We must win decisively the war against poverty, ignorance and disease. I cannot agree more that the touchstone of our efforts to reinvigorate SAARC must be the difference we make to the lives of the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak. This is our highest mandate" he said.

Sharing dais with leaders of Pakistan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka, he said, "To win this war, we must work together." He said the summit has agreed to operationalise the SAARC Development Fund, establish the South Asian University, create a SAARC Food Bank and set up the SAARC Arbitration Council. Noting that the Declaration adopted was "comprehensive and forward looking", he said it gave SAARC a wider mandate to promote peace and development in the region including through greater connectivity -- in trade, in the movement of people and through the flow of ideas.

Referring to the "quality" of discussions the leaders had in the Retreat, Singh said it gave him confidence that the countries could soon bring the fruits of SAARC to its people. The leaders agreed to make tangible progress in the next six months on four issues which affect our people's daily lives -- water (including flood control), energy, food and the environment, he said.

"We will work with international agencies to develop and implement viable cross-border regional projects in these four sectors, which address our people's basic needs", Singh said. The leaders also decided to designate 2008 as the "SAARC Year of Good Governance", he said.