KUWAIT, 21 March 2004 — US Secretary of State Colin Powell said yesterday that Washington was not interested in force-feeding democratic reform to the Middle East.

The administration of US President George W. Bush believes a deficit in political and economic freedom in the Muslim world is a key factor fueling terrorism and has said it intends to promote democratic reform in the Middle East.

“It must come from each country examining its own history, its own culture, its own state, social and political development and making a judgment as to how it is going to go forward into the future,” Powell told a news conference at Kuwait International Aiport ahead of his departure.

Powell has held talks with the leaders of the Arab state, which recently said it welcomes reforms in the Middle East but that they must be home-grown not imposed from outside.

Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad Al-Sabah told reporters later that this does not amount to a rejection of Washington’s “Greater Middle East Initiative”.

“We concurred very much with what Colin Powell said that reforms have to emanate from the region,” he said.

Sheikh Mohammad said those included a declaration this year in which GCC at their annual summit “committed themselves to reform the educational system, to reform the economic system and to enable women to play a greater role in Gulf society.”

The US initiative has been dismissed by many Arab states for failing to mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which many Arabs say is at the heart of the region’s problems.

“We think there are some general principles that are useful. These principles I know are being considered by members of the Arab League, to be discussed at the upcoming or forthcoming Arab League summit,” Powell said. “This is not something for the US to impose on anyone. It is something for the US to help others to achieve reform.”

Powell also announced in Kuwait that the US-led coalition and Iraq’s interim leadership have “frozen” documents related to the UN oil-for-food program to assist a fraud enquiry launched by the world body.

“(Coalition civil administrator) ambassador (Paul) Bremer and the Iraqi Governing Council have frozen all the records that exist in Baghdad with respect to the oil-for-food program,” he said. “The records will be available for UN investigators,” whenever they ask for them, Powell added.

He said the United States was working with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to assist in the inquiry into allegations of fraud and corruption in the UN program that oversaw Iraqi oil sales following the Gulf War. “

Pressure has been mounting from Iraqi and US officials amid allegations that the program was awash in bribery and corruption, including kickbacks to foreign officials.