NUSA DUA (Indonesia), May 13: The D-8 summit largely skirted a diplomatic nuclear crisis engulfing its member Iran on Saturday but agreed that members should cooperate to develop atomic energy.

A declaration issued at the end of the day-long summit did not mention Iran’s nuclear issue but instead affirmed member commitment “to develop alternative and renewable energy resources, among others biofuel, biomass, hydro, solar, wind and the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

D-8 comprises Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey. The forum focuses on commercial and economic cooperation among member states, including in the areas of science, industry and investment.

The group said in its declaration that it gave ‘full support’ to the speedy accession of Iran to the World Trade Organisation.

It also called upon WTO members to “accelerate the application and accession process of all developing countries based on non-discriminatory principles.”

The wide-ranging declaration also saw the eight nations “express our concern over the crisis following the publication of insulting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) which has deeply offended Muslim populations worldwide.”

It urged member states to overcome the prevailing imbalances and growing economic disparities. It called for greater international support to their development efforts.

The declaration urged measures to address the problems of debt by adopting effective, comprehensive, equitable, durable and development-oriented solutions.

The D-8 called for debt cancellation, rescheduling and swaps for development and alternative mechanisms for debt management.

Trade among the D-8 nations more than doubled to $33 billion in 2004 from $14.5 billion in 1999.

The declaration welcomed the signing of the Preferential Trade Agreement and the Multilateral Agreement among the member nations, as a milestone to achieve the objectives of enhancing D-8 intra trade cooperation.

It asked the international community, especially the World Health Organisation, to undertake concrete measures to overcome the spread of pandemic diseases such as avian influenza, HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

The D-8 leaders underlined that the right for freedom of expression must be exercised responsibly and not to be used as a pretext for incitement to hatred or insult towards any belief or religion.

It called upon the international community to promote dialogue among civilisations.

The summit opened with both the Indonesian and Iranian leaders calling for unity and greater cooperation among their members.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged the D-8 to promote dialogue among civilisations.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, handing over the grouping’s chairmanship to the Indonesian president, did not mention his country’s nuclear ambitions as he urged the D-8 to work together for the welfare of the Muslim world and the entire world community.

“We are all members of the Ummah and the human society as a whole and thus have shared interests and concerns,” he said.

Greater cooperation “will bring about greater strength, dignity and progress to the Muslim Ummah ... which can be used in the service of international peace and security,” he said.

President Yudhoyono was asked at the end of the summit that he hosted whether international reaction to Iran’s nuclear ambitions was about anti-Islamism. “We did not discuss specifically on Iran, so there is no statement to connect the Iranian nuclear issue with Islamophobia,” he told a press briefing. “We strictly looked at it as a problem of communication and cooperation between Iran and IAEA,” he said.

“I appealed to Iranian President Ahmadinejad to continue cooperation between Iran and the IAEA to find a peaceful and just solution,” he added.—Agencies