SHANGHAI -- The foreign ministers of Russia and China agreed on Wednesday a broad-based coalition government should be set up in Afghanistan, as long as it has wide international support, Russian diplomats said.

A Russian delegate at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum said Russian Foreign Minister, Igor Ivanov, and Chinese Foreign Minister, Tang Jiaxuan, also discussed bilateral ties and U.S. anti-missile defense plans.

"The main focus was Afghanistan," the delegate told Reuters.

"Both sides agreed there was a need to form a democratic coalition government which would represent all forces in Afghanistan and which would have international support as well as friendly relations with its neighbors," he said.

China's APEC website published a report along the same lines.

China and Russia both back the U.S.-led campaign on terrorism, following the September 11 attacks on the United States which, Washington blames on Saudi-born militant, Osama bin Laden.

"That fight (against terrorism) should involve the efforts of the entire international community in accordance with the norms of international law," said a Russian Foreign Ministry statement distributed in Shanghai.

Beijing has been more cautious than Moscow in its reaction to U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan aimed at hitting Bin Laden's training camps and the Taleban movement that supports him.

The Russian statement said both countries agreed the United Nations and its Security Council should play a central role in the battle against terrorism -- an apparent reference to reservations about Washington's dominant role so far.

It also said the two ministers discussed "practical steps aimed at broadening cooperation between Russia and China in the field of anti-terrorism". Russian officials would not elaborate on what those steps might be.

On the need for a new government in Kabul, a Russian diplomat said Moscow believed all ethnic groups should be included but not the Taleban as a movement. He also said there was little point pulling together a coalition from outside the country.

U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, has not ruled out moderate Taleban adherents being included in a coalition.

Another report by Reuters said Pacific rim ministers sought to hammer out a compromise agreement on fighting terrorism on Wednesday as predominately-Muslim Malaysia fired a fresh blast of criticism at U.S. strikes on Afghanistan.

Revisions to a counter-terror declaration, which has added a political plank to APEC's normal economic agenda in the wake of the attacks on the United States, are already under way.

An earlier U.S.-written draft condemned terrorism with utmost vigour, and called for continued efforts to tighten airport and port security and anti-money laundering measures.

U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, arrived late on Wednesday to seek support for the war on terrorism, followed by President, George W. Bush, on Thursday.

But building a united coalition will be difficult without backing from Malaysia and Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Malaysian Trade Minister, Rafidah Aziz, said on Wednesday the U.S.-led strikes could end up spawning more of the terrorism Washington has vowed to crush, hardening her government's opposition to the use of military force in Afghanistan.

"You wipe out one generation of terrorists, a new generation emerges," Rafidah told Reuters.

"We all feel that terrorism should be eradicated, but it cannot be eradicated with the use of physical methods like bombing...because terrorism is a state of mind. It's not like a virus where you kill the bacteria and it goes off," she said.