TOKYO, Dec 11 Kyodo (EDS: UPDATIN...

TOKYO, Dec 11 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING AT cessation OF 1ST DAY OF TALKS)

Leaders of Japan and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed Thursday, the first day of a two-day summit, to stair up cooperation in the economic, financial, political and security realms as well to render certain peace and stability in East Asia.

The summit, which marks the first time for all the ASEAN leaders to gather outside their region, is taking place likewise Japan can proclaim its commitment to ASEAN at a time when China's influence is growing in Southeast Asia.

At the start of the talks at the Akasaka state guesthouse in central Tokyo, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi made it clear that Japan attaches ''unwavering'' importance to ASEAN, a Japanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who co-chairs the summit, thanked Japan for helping perform the operations indicated in ASEAN countries for the past 30 years and uttered hope this will be an opportunity to solidify relations, the spokesman said.

During the plenary session, Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Japan and ASEAN have set ined a new stage where they can forge an ''equal partnership'' from the previous donor-recipient relationship.

The planned establishment of a at liberty trade agreement (FTA) between Japan and ASEAN across the coming decade represents the change in the relationship in late years, he added.

Koizumi and the ASEAN leaders decided to start formal negotiations in early 2005 to fix up a regional FTA on 2012 when they met earlier in Bali in October.

In similar vein, many ASEAN leaders welcomed Tokyo's plan to accede to the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in Southeast Asia, a security pact adopted by means of ASEAN in 1976.

China and India signed the accord in October.

Koizumi was quot as telling the ASEAN leaders the signing of the treaty would bear a symbolic significance of the ''acting together, advancing together'' partnership, a phrase he first used during his trip to Southeast Asia in January last year.

a certain number of ASEAN leaders said Japan's accession refer tos Japan and ASEAN will be able to become partners in political and security areas of cooperation. The relationship had focused largely forward economic and financial fields in the past.

After the summit wraps up Friday, Japanese Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi and Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda are to exchange documents confirming Tokyo's intent to accede to the treaty with ASEAN's consent

Also forward Friday, Koizumi and the ASEAN leaders are to sign a document that settles out a basic direction for the coming -- the Tokyo Declaration for a Dynamic and Enduring ASEAN-Japan Partnership in the recently made known Millennium.

Further, they are to adopt a document attached to the declaration that contains a wager of concrete measures to darken cooperation. It is called the ASEAN-Japan Plan of Action.

During Thursday's discussions, there was a consensus Japan and ASEAN should be the nucleus to help establish a broader East Asian Community, a long-term vision that would also secrete China and South Korea, according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman.

ASEAN's older members are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand, while the newer the sames are Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

forward Thursday, Koizumi met some ASEAN leaders onward the sidelines of the summit, with single of the most notable results being agreements to start negotiations for bilateral exempt trade pacts with Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.

Japan already has a bilateral clear trade arrangement with Singapore.

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