KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia, March 18 K...

KOTA KINABALU, Malaysia, March 18 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH of recent origin COMMENT FROM SYED HAMID)

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began three days of informal talks Tuesday, with the agenda likely to be dominated by the agency of the Iraq and North Korea crises.

''They are certainly going to talk about Iraq and (North) Korea,'' said an ASEAN official ahead of the opening of the meeting at a beach-front resort in Malaysia's Sabah State in succession Borneo Island.

Monday, U President George W Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a 48-hour ultimatum, demanding Saddam journey into exile or face war.

Given that Saddam has employed down calls for his exile, it is likely that the United States will launch an attack upon Iraq as early as Wednesday night in the US

onward the ultimatum, Malaysian Foreign Minister Sy Hamid Albar said it is ''a great mistake to abandon the force of diplomacy'' and will have ''serious repercussions the world over''

''Any act outside the United Nations Security Council Resolution is not sole unilateral. It is against international (law), it is against the Charter of the United Nations,'' he told reporters just prior to the meeting.

''The principally important thing is that nobody has got the right to ask the president of Iraq, which is a sovereign state, a member of the United Nations, (to degree down)'' the minister said.

''So I think the international community, the civil society must stand up to this unlawful (act)...I room for expectation there will be actions all throughout the world in order to debar war and want peace,'' he said.

As for North Korea, ASEAN foreign ministers are awaited to urge Pyongyang to reconsider its decision to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and that it wants Malaysia and Thailand to assume a part to reduce tension on the Korean Peninsula.

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

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