UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to step up the global campaign against terrorism, calling on all nations to prosecute or extradite anyone supporting, financing or participating in terrorist acts.

The 15-0 vote culminated weeks of negotiations by Russia, which introduced the resolution after militants staged a series of attacks there, including the suicide hijacking of two planes and the hostage-taking of a school in Beslan. It was adopted a day after several car bombings targeted Israelis in Egyptian resorts in Sinai.

“We think these events stressed even more the urgency to take further practical steps in the fight against terrorism and we consider the UN is the best coordinator in this fight,”

Russia’s deputy UN ambassador, Alexander Konuzin, said, when asked about the resolution’s importance after the Egyptian attacks.

The resolution “condemns in the strongest terms all acts of terrorism irrespective of their motivation, whenever and by whomsoever committed, as one of the most serious threats to peace and security.”

It urges all countries “to cooperate fully in the fight against terrorism, especially with those states where or against whose citizens terrorist acts are committed.” It calls on all states to bring to justice any person involved in planning, financing, carrying out or providing safe haven to those involved in terrorist acts “on the basis of the principle to extradite or prosecute.”

The resolution creates a Security Council working group to study measures to be taken against terrorists and terrorist groups that are not affiliated with Al-Qaida or Afghanistan’s former Taliban rulers.

The council has already imposed stiff sanctions against those groups – requiring all 191 UN member states to impose a travel ban and arms embargo against a list of those linked to the Taliban or Al-Qaida and to freeze their financial assets. But it has not examined what actions to take against other terrorists.

“It is important that we have agreed in principle to consider measures against terrorists other than those linked to Al-Qaida,” said Algeria’s UN Ambassador Abdallah Baali.

Pakistan and Algeria, the only Muslim nations on the 15-member council, both expressed concern this week that language in the final draft of the resolution would make it a crime to fight in a liberation war, and that a new list of terrorist subjects would be compiled.

During final negotiations that continued into the evening on Thursday and resumed yesterday morning before the vote, the text was changed to make clear that the resolution targeted only criminal acts defined in international conventions dealing with terrorism. The reference to a possible terrorist list, as one measure the working group would consider, was dropped at the last minute.

Spain’s UN Ambassador Juan Antonio Yanez-Barnuevo, who fought hard to keep in the terrorist list, told the council afterwards he recognised that compiling names “may still involve some difficulties but we are fully confident of the group’s ability to take on this task.”

US Ambassador John Danforth said the co-sponsors of the resolution had agreed that every effort would be made to create the list.

Immediately before the vote, Turkey’s UN Ambassador Umit Pamir addressed the council on behalf of the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Conference, saying the group’s “serious misgivings” about language related to resistance to foreign occupation had been addressed and he was “happy” with the final resolution.

Russia’s UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov and other council members believed that to have maximum impact, the resolution needed maximum support from the council to send a united Security Council message to terrorists and their supporters.

So there were lengthy, and sometimes difficult negotiations, but the resolution picked up support. Spain, which was the target of commuter train bombings on March 11, signed on as a co-sponsor along with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Romania and China.

Negotiators reached agreement late Thursday on a key section which calls on all countries to prevent or punish “criminal acts, including against civilians, committed with intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror … intimidate a population … or compel a government or international organisation”.