RIYADH, Feb 6 (AFP) - A Saudi proposal for an international counter-terrorism centre has received a mixed response, ranging from cautious welcome to indifference, from delegates at a conference in the kingdom on combating terror.

"The centre would not end the need for bilateral exchange of information... Nothing would," homeland security advisor Frances Townsend, who leads the US delegation, told reporters late Saturday.

Townsend said however that anything done to increase sharing of intelligence "is a net gain" in the fight against terrorism.

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz opened the four-day conference Saturday with a call for the establishment of an international center to combat and preempt terrorism.

"I call on all countries to set up an international center for combating terrorism. Those working in it would be experts in this field," he told delegates from some 50 countries and international bodies attending the gathering.

The center would "exchange and pass information instantly in a manner compatible with the speed of events and prevent them (terror attacks) before they occur," said the de facto ruler of the oil-rich kingdom.

A senior member of the British delegation gave a guarded welcome to the Saudi proposal.

"It is important that more work is done on understanding the process by which younger people get radicalised and become sympathetic to terrorists, while a minority become terrorists themselves," the official said, requesting anonymity.

He said the centre "would be a tool against terrorism", but insisted that fighting terrorism would be better done through cooperation between security agencies on a bilateral basis.

A diplomat participating in the conference told AFP that the proposal was mentioned briefly beforehand but without details, while others denied any previous knowledge of the Saudi initiative.

Another diplomat said that a final decision about the proposal cannot be reached during the conference as such a matter would have to be referred to the governments concerned.

The head of the German delegation said there were "a lot of issues not entirely clear about the proposed centre", wondering it if would be a center with a regional role as opposed to an international center or an agency under UN umbrella.

"There will be AN international centre, not THE international centre, as long as it is financed by the interested parties," Ambassador Georg Witschel told AFP.

An Italian delegate said the Saudi initiative needed "in-depth discussion ... It is very valued but should not overlap with other initiatives worldwide."

Saudi Arabia has been fighting its own war against domestic terrorism blamed on sympathisers of the Al-Qaeda network. Shootings and bombings have claimed 90 civilian lives since May 2003, according to official figures.

Thirty-nine members of the security forces and 92 militants have also died in the violence.

Townsend praised the performance of Saudi security forces, saying that "the world cannot defeat terrorism without Saudi Arabia defeating terrorism on its own grounds."

The US official said she invoked during the conference President George W. Bush's remarks in his State of the Union speech, in which he referred to Iran as a country that "remains a state sponsor of terrorism."

But a member of the Iranian delegation said any such accusations were "baseless."

"Iran is a country that has been negatively affected by terrorism throughout the past two decades," he told AFP.

Thorough security measures have been in place for the conference, with special security forces deployed along the roads leading to the venue of the gathering.

Helicopters hovered over the center of the Saudi capital Sunday, while journalists were put in a hotel a few miles away from the conference site, with their access thoroughly vetted.

The delegates are probing the causes of terrorism, as well as its relation with money laundering and arms and drug trafficking.

The conference will end two days before landmark municipal elections kick off in Riyadh.