The US foreign policy has increased the level of terrorism in Asia, said a terrorism expert Thursday in Singapore.

"The US invasion of Iraq has increased the threat of terrorism very significantly. As the United States withdraws from Iraq, the threat will grow and will become more significant," Rohan Gunaratna, head of International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research, was quoted by Channel News Asia as saying.

He called for increased international investment in Iraq to stabilize Iraq, "because terrorist ideologies are also influencing a number of terrorist groups and extremism groups based in Asia," he said at the Regional Outlook Forum organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.

The report said that participants also agreed that terrorist cells in Southeast Asia are more influenced by international events overseas rather than in their own backyard.

The real threat in this region is extremist views, with emerging new cells relying on Al Qaeda's ideology of global Jihadism and tactics, the report said

(Xinhua News Agency January 5, 2007)