Ministers of Non-Aligned Movement ( NAM) countries pledged on Thursday to continue to promote multilateralism, especially by strengthening the central role of the United Nations, to protect the interests of the developing countries.

Wrapping up the two-day session in Egypt's Red Sea resort Sharm el-Sheikh, the ministerial meeting of NAM Coordination Bureau called for a bigger role in the international political arena, given the great challenges confronting peace and security, development and progress.

"Such a conference is of great importance to Egypt , as it sends a message to the world that Egypt still has its leading regional role despite domestic changes and instability," said Noha Bakr, professor of political science at the American University in Cairo.

During the conference, member states discussed the importance of promoting the movement's effective role to keep pace with current world changes.

The NAM was born in the Cold War era due to concerns over the serious confrontation between the Eastern and Western military blocs, in which a number of less powerful nations suffered a lot. Currently, the movement consists of 120 UN member states and a number of observers. The group's goal is to avoid alignment with any major diplomatic or political bloc and promote both sovereignty and development.

"The movement should continue to work as the conflicts increase globally. But the conflicts between the states take different forms as compared with those between the world's two big powers," Bakr said.

"The existence of such a movement is very important for world peace, although the peace keeping is the mission of the UN and the Security Council. The movement can play a role in this regard," said Akram Hossam, political expert with Cairo-based Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies.

However, Abdel-Monem Saed, analyst with the same center, said the movement plays no effective role except the organization of meetings.

Participants urged the NAM to play a bigger role in the efforts for a new world order.They agreed the emerging economies will drive global growth and that the developing countries need to play an increasingly important role in the world's economic affairs.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr asserted the importance of the movement in the UN, referring to the number of members which increased to 120 as an indication to the movement's importance.

"Non-Aligned movement includes more than 120 countries, and is considered the second grand cooperation after the United Nations, it also includes more than 60 percent of the UN members, so its decisions are influential," Bakr said.

The movement is believed to face challenges in enhancing its role in a changing world.

"The challenges lie in its weak internal structure. Firstly, the members have no economic or political similarities. The more the members are, the more need for economic and political similarities. Secondly, there is a lack of common strong will among its members because they have different political interests, " Hossam said.

"The movement faces many problems, which it should solve for the member states, such as problems related to the soft security ventures like the natural disasters due to climate change, the rising prices of food and energy and the accelerated monetary volatility," Bakr said.

According to Saed, the movement's achievements diminished after the end of the cold war. But Hossam believed the movement's achievements are going on.

"It's not important for a movement to make global achievements to prove its effectiveness, but it's enough to achieve the member states' goals and enhance economic cooperation. And this happened with the movement," Hossam said.