New Delhi (VNA) - Asian countries should unite and solve disputes through negotiations to create an environment of peace and stability for development in the region, said Vietnamese Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien.

Nien was speaking at the fourth Ministerial Conference of the Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) in Islamabad, Pakistan, on Apr. 5 and 6.

He held that in order to enhance the effectiveness of and expand the ACD, it needed to focus on practical efficiency appropriate to the development and diversification of cultures within the region.

FM Nguyen Dy Nien highlighted Viet Nam's contributions to the poverty reduction and personnel training programmes as a coordinator. ACD countries have highly praised Viet Nam's effective cooperation with African countries and other nations in implementing poverty reduction programmes, he said.

The Vietnamese diplomat offered initiatives to boost cultural cooperation and people-to-people exchanges, and enhance mutual understanding with a view to creating favourable conditions for maintaining peace and stability, and promoting economic, scientific and technological cooperation.

While in Pakistan, FM Nien attended separate meetings with President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz of Pakistan, and had working sessions with Thai Deputy Prime Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and the foreign ministers of China, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Kazakhstan.

The fourth ACD conference passed a regulation on "ACD's partners for development" and agreed to admit two more members, Saudi Arabia and Russia. It also agreed to hold the fifth ministerial conference of the ACD (ACD-5) in Qatar in 2006 and ACD-6 in the Republic of Korea in 2007./.