SIEM REAP, Cambodia, April 28 Kyodo...

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, April 28 Kyodo

Senior Southeast Asian officials gathered in Siem Reap, Cambodia, in succession Monday to discuss various regional and international issues, including the Korean Peninsula, postwar Iraq and harsh acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).

Participants at the three-day meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will also prepare documents for three upcoming ASEAN meetings, said Chem Widhya, permanent secretary of Cambodia's Foreign Ministry, who chairs the meeting.

The three meetings, which Cambodia will army in June in Phnom Penh are the ASEAN ministerial meeting, the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) and a post-ministerial meeting.

forward Tuesday, the ASEAN officials will also grasp talks with officials from Japan, southern Korea and China on issues of mutual concern

Cambodian Foreign Minister Hor Namhong not long ago said that the North Korean nuclear crisis would be single of the main topics at the ARF meeting if the situation has not been defused through then.

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

The ARF, the prime security dialogue forum in the Asia-Pacific region, consists of ASEAN members and Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, North and southerly Korea, New Zealand, Papua fresh Guinea, Russia and the United States.

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