HANOI, Nov. 18 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said here Saturday that APEC members should not let security issues blur the forum's focus on promoting economic growth.

    "APEC should return to its original purpose as an instrument for promoting economic growth through fostering freer, and fairer flow of trade," Badawi told the on-going APEC CEO summit.

    "Its assumption of some security role following the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. has compromised its original purpose and blurred its focus," he said.

    "Security, after all, is the express concern of the ARF," he said, referring to the ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together foreign and defense ministers from around the Asia-Pacific region.

    APEC was founded in 1989 to advance mutual trade and economic concerns, but the meetings in recent years have been routinely hijacked by security issues such as terrorism. And this year seemed to be no different, with many of the bilateral or trilateral talks among APEC economic leaders focusing on the nuclear issue of the Korean Peninsula.

    Badawi listed five priorities that he said APEC members should pursue in the future for the mutual and comprehensive well-being in the region, stressing that the most urgent one is to refine the role of APEC and make it a more effective process for regional cooperation in its specific field.

    "Among the things we might want to do is to make the APEC agenda more relevant to the needs and aspirations of all member economies and not just a few," he said.

    Leaders of the 21 APEC member economies began their annual meeting in Hanoi on Saturday afternoon, with the presence of such prominent figures as Chinese President Hu Jintao, U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

    This year's meeting is held under the theme "Towards a Dynamic Community for Sustainable Development and Prosperity."