US President George W. Bush fears the so-called man-portable air-defense systems, known as MANPADS, could be used by the al-Qaeda terror group to shoot down commercial planes, particulary American aircraft, they said.

"There is widespread support for the US plan -- all in the interest of combating terrorism," an official of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum told AFP ahead of the summit meeting next week.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the APEC leaders were expected "to commit to impose strict control of these weapons and their essential components in order to protect international aviation."

They would also pledge to "dismantle, fully and without delay, transnational terrorist groups whose operational and ideological reach threatens the APEC economies," the official said.

APEC host Thailand warned last month that alleged terror kingpin Hambali, captured in the country in August, had admitted he had plans to use missiles to attack commercial airliners aside from bombing embassies and tourist zones in Bangkok as part of an al-Qaeda campaign.

Hambali, now in US custody, is the brains behind Jemaah Islamiyah, the Southeast Asian chapter of al-Qaeda.

The APEC official said the group's foreign and trade ministers, who began preparing Friday the agenda for the leaders' meeting on October 20-21, would agree "to counter the emerging threat of MANPADS to civil aviation."

They would tighten "domestic controls on the production, transfer and brokering of MANPADS," the official said.

He did not say whether any APEC countries had weak enforcement rules that may have led to the al-Qaeda accumulating these weapons. Among manufacturers of such surface-to-air missiles are the United States, Russia and China.

SPACE.WIRE