Lima  - The annual Leaders' Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum was formally opened Saturday in Lima.

Peruvian President Alan Garcia made brief remarks to praise the "vision" of APEC's founders to anticipate the "economic fate" of the world.

Then he asked reporters to leave the room as the leaders of the organization's 21 economies, sitting at a round table, went about discussing behind closed doors the current economic and financial crisis, among other issues.

The meeting took place in the so-called "Pentagonito," the small Pentagon, as the Peruvian Army Headquarters in the San Borja district of Lima are known locally.

Garcia had personally welcomed his guests before the imposing concrete structure, in a setting that was presided over by a large Peruvian flag.

Earlier, many top officials including US President George W Bush and Chinese leader Hu Jintao had addressed an APEC CEO Summit in Lima. They anticipated that economic issues would play the main role in their meetings and expressed a commitment to keep "markets open and firmly reject protectionism," in Bush's words.

"This summit comes at a serious time, during economic turmoil," he said.

On Friday, Hu had told business leadere in no uncertain terms that "the situation is very grim."

APEC refers to itself as having 21 member economies rather than member countries because it includes the Chinese territory of Hong Kong and also Taiwan, which China sees as its breakaway province.

For the same reason, its summits display no flags and bring together "leaders" rather than the more usual heads of state or government.

The group's 19 other members are Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.

The Asia-Pacific region represents an estimated 49 per cent of world trade and 55 per cent of the global gross domestic product, according to APEC.

The forum was created in 1989 with 12 members, and annual leaders' meetings have been held since 1993.

About 39,000 police officers were in charge of security during the summit, along with a further 50,000 on call in case they were needed. An unspecified number of military officers were to support their operations. (dpa)