The conference was at pains to present a plan of action that would not contain language offensive to the Western powers. For example, it resisted Libya's urging to take a swipe at Zionism.
South Africa insisted on the inclusion of a number of sophisticated antiterror measures in the plan of action that have huge financial and logistic implications for the majority of African countries. These include compiling a population register and issuing forgery-proof passports and other identification.
The Algiers Convention has prompted some objections among Western countries by excluding from its definition of terrorism those liberation movements fighting to regain occupied territory. The convention was also silent on the issue of state terrorism.
The conference took up Algeria's offer to host an African Center for the Research and Study of Terrorism, but opted to examine the financial implications before making this facility a permanent part of the nascent African Union, which recently replaced the Organization of African Unity.***
``If they are friendly to the United States and they respect the rights of their citizens, we will do whatever we can to help them. If they align themselves with the enemies of the United States, if they go visit Saddam Hussein, or Moammar Gadhafi or Fidel Castro, we will have to presume that they find something in those regimes that they like. And that worries us, because those are terrorists and they are failed countries.''***