DHAKA, BANGLADESH — Seven men who rule nearly one-fifth of the world`s population sat down together at an unprecedented summit meeting Saturday and agreed to cooperate in a battle against the ``depths of poverty and human misery`` that pervade their south Asian nations.
The leaders, including several bitter political enemies, announced the formation of a regional economic alliance similar to Europe`s Common Market or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
The new organization, to be known as the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC), will unite India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and the Indian Ocean republic of Maldives.
``The world in which we live is a cruel and unforgiving one,`` said Bangladesh President Hussein Mohammed Ershad in formally proposing the new organization.
``It is a world that punishes the weak and rewards the strong. The global economic compulsions that confront us require a joint and increasingly sophisticated response.``
That response, Ershad said, could come only through the formation of SAARC, which will cater to the economic interests of nearly 1 billion people in south Asia. Those 1 billion people represent nearly one-fifth of the world`s population, although they live on less than 4 percent of the global land mass and have a per capita income that is less than one-tenth the world average.
``Nowhere in the developing world as in south Asia is there to be found such depths of poverty and human misery co-existing with immense physical, and above all, human resources,`` Ershad said.
The documents creating SAARC were to be signed by the seven leaders Sunday at the conclusion of the two-day summit.
In speeches extolling the virtues of regional economic cooperation Saturday, the seven SAARC leaders tended to gloss over a number of significant problems that have kept their countries at odds for decades.
Those problems stem from the wide diversity of the seven nations, which stretch from the snow-capped Himalayas of Nepal to the coral beaches of the Maldives.
Politically, the members of the new group are equally diverse. Two countries (Nepal and Bhutan) are monarchies; two (Bangladesh and Pakistan) are ruled by the military; and three (India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives) are democracies.
But the most serious problem the new regional organization faces is the longstanding political and military animosity between its two largest countries, India and Pakistan. The two have gone to war twice in recent years and there have been persistent reports that Pakistan is trying to develop nuclear arms with the help of China.
Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and Pakistani President Zia ul-Haq downplayed their differences in public, preferring to speak optimistically about economic cooperation. But they met privately after the formal summit session Saturday for more substantive talks. In their speeches at the summit, Gandhi and Zia both touched on the issue of nuclear arms, but only briefly.
``Prevailing tensions and the continuing nuclear arms race pose a serious threat to our progress and prosperity,`` Gandhi admitted in a general remark toward the end of his speech.
Zia spent a little more time on the issue. He urged fellow SAARC leaders to renounce the use of force against one another and suggested that, possibly, ``we could take steps to banish nuclear weapons.``
The one man who dwelt on the political realities that could wreck any hope for regional political cooperation was King Jigme Singye Wangchuck of Bhutan, the youngest leader at the meeting.
``If regional cooperation is to be enhanced, we have to move away from an attitude of suspicion to one of understanding and trust, despite major differences in political and security perceptions,`` said the 30-year-old bachelor king from Bhutan.