Earlier this month, US B-52 bombers flew near China's artificialislands, signal ling Washington's determination to chal lenge Beijing over the disputed sea China has said it does notwant the South China Sea issue to be the focus ofthe meet- ings in Kuala Lumpur. Prime Minister Li Keqiang has yet to comment on the issue. Mr Najib opened the weekend series of meetings on Saturday, calling on world leaders to confront Islamist extremism The night before, Islamist militants killed 19 people in an attack on a hotel in Bamako, Mali, before Malian commandos
Stormed the building and rescued 170 people, many of them foreigners. "The per petrators of these cowardly and barbaric acts do not represent any race, religion or creed, nor should we allow them to claim to do so" Mr Najib said in his speech at the Asean summit. "They are terrorists and should be confronted as such, with the full force of the law.' He said predominantly Islamic coun tries such as Malaysia have a duty to expose as lies the "ideology propagated by these extremists that is the cause of this sadis- tic violence" Mr Obama said on Saturday the Mali hotel attacks only stiffened the resolve the US and its allies, which would be relent less in fighting those targeting its citizens and would allow militants no safe haven. "We will continue to root out terrorist networks," Mr Obama told a meeting "we will not allow these killers to have business executives. safe haven. REUTE RS