Zainuddin urged members to develop their media and use technology to forge better communication links among them.

"Unless we do this, we shall continue to bemoan the fact that the so-called international media has not and will never give the fair coverage that is due to us," he said in a speech.

The Non-Aligned Movement is a group of nations that sought to avoid alignments with so-called superpowers during the Cold War.

It includes mostly poor countries but also thriving economies such as Singapore, Malaysia and India.

Trust lost

The minister said the West was cynical about the creation of NNN, but people had lost trust in Western media outlets after their reports on the Iraq war.

"Before, people had a strong confidence, (they) wholeheartedly believed in BBC, believed in CNN, but now the situation has changed," he told reporters after introducing the news service.

In contrast, said the minister, the NNN aimed to be an independent and balanced source of news that was not biased.

"We are giving the news fairly, we are not using the deceiving approach, just like the Western media are doing," he said, insisting that NAM countries practised press freedom.

"We don't want to practice that, we are trying to project ourselves as free, independent news."

Different languages

The web-based news service will carry about 60 news items daily, as well as photographs, contributed by 35 news agencies and news organisations of NAM member countries in Asia, West Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe.

Other countries including China, whose news agency Xinhua has a wide global presence, are contributing.

French, Spanish and Arabic news services are also being planned.

Zainuddin said NNN must be supported, nurtured and developed to become an important window on NAM countries for the world.

"Admittedly, it already has its fair of detractors but we must not be discouraged. With commitment and determination, we can make NNN a successful news organisation of the South and prove the doomsayers wrong," he said.

Malaysia's national news agency Bernama will maintain the site.

The reforms were promoted by the previous centre-right government led by Silvio Berlusconi. He argued that Italian politics needed more stability.

The current centre-left government of Romano Prodi campaigned against them.

The BBC's David Willey in Rome says legislators are now likely to go back to the drawing board to decide how to ensure more stability in a country which has had 61 governments since 1945.

Just over half the 47 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in the two-day referendum.

Mr Prodi was deeply opposed to the reform bill, which was sponsored by the populist Northern League party.

The Northern League leader, Umberto Bossi, had made the progression of the bill a prerequisite for his continued support of Mr Berlusconi.

He has raised the prospect that the Northern League will split from the centre-right coalition - a move that would undermine Mr Berlusconi's leadership of the opposition.

Sweeping changes

Under the reforms, the prime minister would be granted powers to dissolve parliament, appoint and dismiss ministers and determine the general direction of government policy.

These were all powers that were deliberately kept out of the hands of the prime minister in the 1948 constitution, as a way of preventing the emergence of another figure like fascist dictator Benito Mussolini.

The bill would also redefine the role of Italy's two parliamentary chambers.

The lower house - the Chamber of Deputies - would take the dominant role in matters of national interest like foreign policy, defence and immigration.

The upper house - the Senate - would become responsible for federal law.

But most significantly this bill would give greater autonomy to Italy's 20 regions. They would gain control over education, healthcare and law and order, and would win special representation in the nation's supreme court.

Some estimates say regional government would take control of around 40% of public expenditure.

'No' camp

Vannino Chiti, Mr Prodi's minister for institutional reforms, called the proposals "an awful mess".

"We would end up with 20 regional health systems, 20 regional school systems, and all sorts of divisions among Italians," he said.

The poorer regions in the south are hugely dependent on tax money that comes from the north, the BBC's Christian Fraser reports from Rome.

Two 2005 studies by groups looking at child health in Italy found that if the south were independent it would be the poorest of the 25 EU members in terms of per capita national income.

There were fears the constitutional changes could lead to disparities in the quality of public services, with teachers and health professionals deserting the south, preferring better wages and prospects in the north.

Another key argument against the reforms was the cost.

Italy urgently needs to cut its budget deficit. The proposals might add expensive layers of bureaucracy to a system of public administration where there is already plenty of waste, Christian Fraser reports.

In an interview on state television on Monday, Chirac said, "The government has assumed its tasks with success, and I see no reason to stop it (from) continuing its action with determination."

Villepin's approval rating has nose-dived since the nationwide protests in April over a controversial youth labor law.

Chirac said he wanted Villepin's government "to see its action through to its conclusion."

"What I look at are the results in terms of employment, security etc. That is what interests me, and that is what interests the French people. The French are not fascinated by pseudo-intellectual debates of so-called commentators."

In the interview, the French president also refused to rule outrunning for a third term, saying he would announce his decision early in 2007.

It quoted Cardinal Joseph Zen, head of the Hong Kong Catholic diocese, as decribing the visit as a "great development".

"Since both sides have long indicated their wish to talk, it is a very good thing that Vatican officials are now talking with their Chinese counterparts in China. I think it is a friendly gesture (by Beijing)," he was quoted as saying.

China cut diplomatic ties with the Vatican in 1951 -- prompting Rome to switch its recognition to Taiwan, which Beijing views as part of its territory.

Zen cautioned that differences must be settled before formal ties could be restored.

"I don't know about the details of the discussions, but I do not expect the talks will progress very quickly," he said. "Anyway, it is a good start. Beijing knows the two illicit ordinations of bishops were blunders and will not do it again."

China last month ordained two bishops without papal approval.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had no knowledge of the talks.

"I haven't heard any news but the Chinese government has a clear position and is sincere to improve relations with the Vatican," she said. "We are ready to have constructive dialogue with the Vatican based on the two principles."

Liu Bainian, spokesman of the state-run China Catholic Patriotic Association, also said he had no knowledge of the negotiations.

Beijing says the Vatican must sever relations with Taiwan -- which Zen said it was ready to do -- and not interfere in China's internal affairs including in religious matters.

China's state-sanctioned church, which does not answer to the pope, has about four million worshippers, official figures show. The Vatican estimates the illegal, or underground, church has around 10 million.

The Vatican delegation was also expected to visit several mainland cultural sites and scheduled to depart on July 1, the newspaper said.

Dyer said the eighth and ninth people who remained trapped would be rescued as soon as the front of the building - which officials feared could still collapse - was shored up.

Attempts to locate a 10th person, who was believed to have been on the third floor when the building collapsed, would begin as soon as the other victims were out, Dyer said.

"No fatalities that we know of," Clinton Police Lt. Sonny Lynch said. "If we can peel this thing back and take it apart and not have any more collapse, we should be fine. I really think we can do this."

About 50 people were in the building Monday night - most having dinner on the second floor - when the third floor collapsed around 7:30 p.m., officials said. An Elks Club meeting was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. on the third floor, where new members were to be initiated.

All but 10 found a way out, with several suffering minor injuries.

Nine of those trapped inside were confined in the same 10-by-12-foot area on the second floor. The first walked out around 12:35 a.m., and others followed in 10- to 15-minute intervals.

Henry County Presiding Commissioner Greg Lowe, who was eating dinner in the building when it started to collapse, said he wasn't sure he was going to make it out alive.

"It started caving in," he said. "I went into the next building. The ceiling was falling in. I got to the front and we were going to jump, and then we found a staircase.

"It happened so fast," said Lowe, who had a cut on his head and knots and bruises on his legs from falling brick. "I don't know what in the hell would make the thing come down so fast. I figured I was history."

About 200 emergency personnel were on the scene early Tuesday, including a specialized rescue team from Whiteman Air Force Base, crane operators and an urban search-and-rescue team. Rescuers were using camera and sound devices and canine rescue dogs in their efforts to get to those trapped inside.

Clinton Mayor Gus Wetzel said the collapse came at a time when the Elks Club was marking a milestone in the city.

"It's a sad time for us, a time of irony," Wetzel said. "This Elks Club was celebrating their 100th anniversary in our community."

The collapse occurred in the aging downtown of this community of about 9,500 people, upstairs from a men's clothing store, sandwiched between a law firm and a pharmacy.