UNITED NATIONS - Nearly every nation pledged to do more to combat terrorism with the approval Friday of a U.N. General Assembly resolution that does not include a definition of such activities or say anything about states that engage in terrorist acts.

The resolution, adopted by consensus, is intended to encourage international cooperation in going after would-be terrorists. It essentially reaffirms the strategy adopted two years ago by the 192-nation assembly, including vague promises to promote a rule of law and culture of peace.

General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim, who made a review of the strategy one of his top priorities, said the United Nations can play a bigger role as partner for nations that need help in dealing with extremist groups. That is something that Washington also favors.

"The United States strongly supports the central role of the United Nations in the global fight against terrorism," U.S. Deputy Ambassador Alejandro Wolff said, adding that the U.S. "wants to strengthen the U.N.'s ability and resolve to play a constructive and effective role."

Wolff was one of about 100 diplomats who took to the podium over two days to describe some of their counterterrorism activities. During much of the speechmaking the cavernous 2,000-person assembly hall was only about a tenth full.

In 2006, the U.N. and member nations agreed as part of their new counterterrorism strategy to develop a database on "biological incidents" to counter the threat of bio-terror, clamp down on counterfeiting of travel documents and develop ways to stem terrorism on the Internet.

The plan also encouraged nations to step up border controls against terrorists and smuggled arms and to donate to U.N. counterterrorism projects.

Since then "we have made much progress," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, citing the work of some 20-plus U.N. entities and Interpol that are part of a U.N. counterterrorism task force. He said more nations are becoming "acutely conscious" of what they can bring to the fight.

The task force arose partly from "tensions" between the General Assembly and the Security Council, Swiss Ambassador Peter Maurer said.

Some nations have complained about what they refer to as the lack of "transparency" in the way the Security Council decides to impose financial sanctions on suspected terrorists. For that reason a greater emphasis on "human rights and fundamental freedoms" was among the pillars of the resolution adopted Friday.

That is something likely to be worked out in greater detail in the months ahead. In August, the Belgium-based European Court of Justice, which is the European Union's highest court, found flaws in the method that the Security Council uses in dealing with al-Qaida and other terror groups.

It ruled a Saudi businessman and Sweden-based charity were denied their legal rights to a judicial review under European law when EU governments decided in 2001 to freeze their assets, complying with a U.N. anti-terrorism order by the Security Council. The court overturned the decision, though it acknowledged the reasons for freezing the assets might be justified.

For years there has been disagreement over what exactly constitutes terrorism. However, Robert Orr, the U.N. policy coordination chief, said 13 separate international conventions that define terrorist acts provide "a strong body of international law that governs a large part of this."

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