MADRID, Jan 15: World leaders and personalities from some 60 countries on Tuesday launched a new UN forum aimed at averting the “predicted clash of civilisations” in the wake of Sept 11 and other terror attacks.

The first Alliance of Civilisations Forum seeks to “mobilise those great majorities of the population who want to, and know how to, live in peace...,” Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said in an inaugural speech.

“It does want to contribute to isolating extremist and intolerant discourses on the part of those who try to utilise religion or culture for political purposes.”

The forum will aim to “avoid the predicted clash of civilisations, by promoting security, understanding, tolerance, and mutual respect in a globalised world,” he said.

Zapatero first proposed the initiative at the UN General Assembly in Sept 2004, six months after the Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, and three years after the Sept 11 attacks in the United States that claimed nearly 3,000 lives.

Around 350 people from 63 countries are attending the forum, including Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a co-sponsor along with Zapatero, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and former Portuguese president Jorge Sampaio, the UN high representative for the Alliance of Civilisations.

“The international situation created in the wake of Sept 11, as well as all the other terrorist attacks that have tragically marked our times, have created a pressing need for dialogue between civilisations, religions and cultures,” Sampaio told the delegates.

Ban noted that the participants come from “different backgrounds and perspectives.

“But you share a common conviction that the Alliance of Civilisations is an important way to counter extremism and heal the divisions that threaten our world.... The threats are terrifying. But the responses are at hand,” Ban said.

The two-day gathering is to announce initiatives aimed at promoting greater understanding between cultures.

Queen Noor of Jordan unveiled the first of these, a 100-million-dollar fund to back major film productions that help combat stereotypes.

The fund will “support the production and distribution of films that entertain as well as enlighten -- films that will enhance the connections that already exist between different societies, but are seldom noted on screen and in popular culture,” she said.

The fund has an initial investment of 10 million dollars, and has established partnerships with Hollywood production and distribution companies, including Participant Productions, which was behind the film “Syriana” starring George Clooney.

Another project to be announced is a Rapid Response Media Mechanism, aimed at reducing tensions in times of cross-cultural crises.

“If a new crisis erupts on this front, a rapid response mechanism will furnish voices of reason to reporters and producers around the world,” said Ban.

Two such cross-cultural crises in the past were the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which led to violent demonstrations throughout the Muslim world, and the Holocaust conference in Iran last year.

At Tuesday’s opening session, Qatar announced a 100-million-dollar investment in a new initiative, called Silatech (“your connection” in Arabic), aimed at combating the “alarming” level of youth unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa.

Other participants scheduled to attend the forum’s two plenary sessions include Turkey’s Nobel Literature laureate Orhan Pamuk, Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa and the former president of Ireland, Mary Robinson.—AFP