Foreign and trade ministers were gathering Tuesday in Santiago, against the backdrop of the soaring peaks of the Andes, for a two-day conference of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

The talks, a fuzzy combination of official agendas and informal political arm-twisting, aim to produce a strong message for a weekend summit of the 21 APEC leaders, including US President George W. Bush.

A massive security operation had yet to reach its peak a day before the ministerial meeting began.

At the airport, security was low-key.

Military-style police screened officials and their bags on entry to the Espacio Riesco conference center. Three police on horseback stood in a field of hip-high grass on one side of the building.

Santiago and its five million inhabitants are under surveillance by at least 3,500 police, officials said.

Radical groups plan a student march Wednesday.

The Chilean Social Forum said it would hold a rival summit, and a protest march on Friday through the center of Santiago.

Broader security risks will occupy the policymakers.

Powell -- vowing to work hard until the "very, very end" as he announced his resignation Monday -- set his sights on North Korea, which has refused to participate in six-country talks to end its nuclear weapons drive.

"(We will) make sure that we use our alliances in Asia and the partnerships we have in Asia to keep pressing to find a solution to the North Korean nuclear program," Powell said at a news conference in Washington Monday, two days before his arrival.

Bush, who announced Tuesday that his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, will succeed Powell, seems bound to push his core agenda, the "war on terror" and the Iraq conflict.

In the runup to the talks, the US leader called Philippine President Gloria Arroyo to patch up relations, soured when she withdrew Filipino troops from Iraq at the demand of insurgents who took a Filipino truck driver, Angelo de la Cruz, hostage.

The terrorism stakes in Asia are high.

Indonesia has suffered a spate of attacks this decade by the Al-Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, including the 2002 Bali bombings in which 202 people died.

The Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group has been kidnapping foreigners in the southern Philippines.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra initially cancelled plans to attend the November 20-21 summit due to a surge of violence in the mainly Muslim south, although officials confirmed Sunday that he would attend.

Asia-Pacific leaders also want to wrench back their role as the standard bearers for free trade.

US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, who arrives Wednesday, touted a batch of one-on-one free trade agreements with Singapore, Chile and the United States. Talks are under way for deals with Peru and Thailand, he said.

"The United States hopes to work with others to build on APEC's market-opening efforts," he said in Washington.

APEC powers are struggling over how to deal with a growing network of free-trade agreements. They also hope to inject new dynamism into a major round of World Trade Organization negotiations, begun in Doha, Qatar in 2001.

Business leaders in the APEC Business Advisory Council have called on the APEC leaders to put some zip in the free-trade agenda by studying setting up their own Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific.

Taiwan said it backed the scheme.

"Chinese Taipei has expressed our view of approval on the issue of the FTAAP," Huang Chih-Peng, director of the Board of Foreign Trade, said at a news conference, according to an official translation of his remarks.

He recognized, however, that some APEC members had reservations, noting that APEC economies differed hugely. It was unclear how much support the plan will get from APEC, which generally shirks binding agrements.

APEC comprises Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

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