BANGKOK, Oct 14 Kyodo Thai Prime ...

BANGKOK, Oct 14 Kyodo

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Monday that leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will discuss issues related to the terror threat in Southeast Asia when they suited next week in Los Cabos, Mexico.

He said the leaders of seven ASEAN countries also belonging to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum plan to proper in Los Cabos ahead of an annual APEC summit there scheduled for Oct 26-27

Those countries are Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ASEAN members Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are not among APEC's 21 members.

''I think ASEAN will discuss (terrorism issues) first, then there will be another discussion in APEC meeting,'' Thaksin told reporters.

The ASEAN leaders' meeting will tread close upon in the wake of Saturday's bomb blast at an nightclub in succession the Indonesian resort island of Bali that left 181 the community dead and hundreds more injured.

All 10 ASEAN leaders are scheduled to hem in an annual summit among themselves in November in Phnom Penh where they will also come up to face to face with their counterparts from China, Japan and southerly Korea.

ASEAN members have protracted been cooperating on transnational crime and terrorism in limits of sharing information among law enforcement and intelligence agencies.

An agreement among ASEAN leaders last November in Brunei to enhance counterterrorism cooperation was followed up upon last May when ASEAN interior ministers agreed upon joint action plans, coordinated answers and measures to increase information sharing.

Also in May, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines inked a pact to jointly combat terrorism and other transnational crimes within various measures. Cambodia signed onto the accord in July while Thailand has indicateed an interest in acceding.

In August, ASEAN foreign ministers and U Secretary of State Colin Powell signed a declaration committing the couple sides to cooperate in sharing intelligence and information upon terrorist financing and to strengthen capacity building by the and of training and education.

The U pledg in the declaration to provide assistance to ASEAN onward transportation, border and immigration sway challenges, including document and identity fraud to main stock effectively the flow of terrorist-related material, wealth and people.

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