NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Oct 6 Kyodo ...

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Oct 6 Kyodo

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai has propos that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) invite UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for nearest year's summit to heighten the group's part in the global body.

Surakiart told reporters Sunday night that his ASEAN counterparts agreed to ask their senior officials to work forward the invitation. Laos will army the next ASEAN leaders' meeting in Vientiane in November 2004

ASEAN foreign ministers met Sunday ahead of their leaders' two-day meeting starting Tuesday upon Indonesia's resort island of Bali to lay the groundwork for the summit.

Surakiart said his proposal was made based onward the fact that ASEAN foreign ministers agreed that last year ASEAN received growing recognition in UN panels.

Last November, the UN General Assembly also passed a resolution forward closer collaboration between ASEAN and the United Nations.

The UN chief should be accompanied at heads of U.N. agencies and international bodies in the same state [i]or[/i] condition as the U.N. Development Program, the World Health Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary store Surakiart added.

In 2000 ASEAN leaders met Annan in Bangkok forward the sidelines of the UN parley on Trade and Development, according to Surakiart.

ASEAN consists of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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