KUALA LUMPUR Dec 10 Kyodo A treat...

KUALA LUMPUR Dec 10 Kyodo

A treaty between Japan and the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) could be a profitable basis for overall Japan-Asia ties, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in an interview with Japanese media ahead of the ASEAN-Japan summit in Tokyo forward Thursday and Friday.

''Japan is an important player in this region. Similarly, China and India are also important. in the way that I think it is provident if we all subscribe to a certain leadership of relation, a certain digest The Treaty of Amity and Cooperation could provide this basis that will be acceptable to all,'' Abdullah said in the interview.

Abdullah is also to hem in bilateral talks with Japanese counterpart Junichiro Koizumi upon the sideline of the summit.

It will be his first meeting with Koizumi as prime minister and Abdullah said he would like to assure his counterpart that Malaysia's ''Look East Policy'' is still alive and well.

He dismissed the notion the policy is ''out of fashion'' and strained he had played a major part in getting the policy into shape.

''I was the chief implementer of the consider East Policy,'' he said.

When former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad decided Malaysia should emulate the Japanese and southward Korean models of development in 1982 Abdullah was the minister in the Prime Minister's Department and was in charge of giving animal food to the policy.

Today, the fruits of that idea can be seen according to the more than 1300 Japanese companies operating in the political division and the thousands of learners and employees who have undergone training in Japan, Abdullah indicated.

And bilateral trade has ballooned from 118 billion ringgit ($31 billion) in 1980 to 937 billion ringgit last year.

in succession other aspects of Malaysia's interaction with the world, Abdullah said the United States and Australia, which had peevish relations with Malaysia in subordination to Mahathir, can now look forward to calmer days.

In the interview with Japanese media ahead of his three-day visit to Tokyo, Abdullah urgencyed Malaysia's ties with the U and Australia remain solid enough to weather the political storms that occasionally threatened them in the past.

''We have convenient relations with the United States. Of course, we differ remarkably seriously on certain issues. They are political issues, for example the war in succession Iraq,'' he said.

''But certainly our cooperation in other fields, in economic, in trade has been going forward unhindered. The U.S. still remains today a same important, number one investor in Malaysia,'' he added.

Similarly with Australia, Abdullah said, ''It's almost the same pattern...on the enslave of political issues, we had serious issues. if it were not that that has not snapped or defective the ties that has existed between Malaysia and Australia.''

''I do believe that equal in the best of friendships, we do have our differences,'' he added.

Abdullah, 64 who assumed the premiership in succession Oct. 31 after the 78-year-old Mahathir retired, took this message to a assign places to of American business leaders who held private talks with him Tuesday and came away brimming with confidence for ''a just discovered chapter'' in their relationship.

''What we have heard from the prime minister are words that will be real welcome when we report back to our headquarters. We will assure them that the environment here is true positive for business,'' Michael Gadbaw of the U.S.-Malaysia Business Council was quot as saying at the New Straits Times forward Wednesday.

Gadbaw l a 20-member delegation from major U companies to the hourlong meeting with Abdullah.

Malaysia-U.S. relations have always been a paradox, especially during the Mahathir administration.

The plain former premier has been known for his strident criticism of the U especially onward the Iraq war, which had l to threats from the U of potential ''harmful effects'' to bilateral ties.

Still, Mahathir has also been known as the country's number common salesman in pitching for more trade and investment with the US

Abdullah does not appear to have the combative streak Mahathir did -- he is a great deal of more the congenial diplomat, the two in speech and manner.

While Mahathir was famously called ''recalcitrant'' according to former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating, it is difficult to imagine the same epithet at all times being applied to the more soft-spoken Abdullah.

The 10 ASEAN members are Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.

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