BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 30 Kyodo ...

BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN, July 30 Kyodo

Foreign ministers from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) began the inferior day of their two-day annual meeting Tuesday to discuss issues as it was as terrorism, regional conflicts and boosting ties with East Asia.

The talks are look forward toed to end before noon, to be followed by way of meetings with their counterparts from China, Japan and southward Korea.

The ministers are also likely to continue their discussions forward the main issues forward this year's agenda -- in what way to intensify efforts to crack down forward terrorism in the aftermath of the tribe 11 attacks on the United States.

ASEAN and the U are look fored to sign a declaration for cooperation to combat terrorism in the region, which is believed to have clusters linked to the al-Qaida terrorist network of Saudi-born Islamic militant Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in last September's air strikes onward New York and Washington.

Monday, the ministers had failed to agree upon the details of a propos blueprint to help unfold disputes in the South China Sea and it is believed they will be working Tuesday to reach a consensus before meeting with their Chinese counterpart later in the day.

ASEAN and China have been striving for years to define an agreement for resolving the territorial claims in the southern China Sea, but their negotiations have not produc any significant eventuates partly due to differences within ASEAN.

At the center of the toward the south China Sea row is the 1,000-kilometer Spratly archipelago, claimed wholly or in part through China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.

Also likely forward the Tuesday agenda are discussions to agree forward a location for a propos ''ASEAN-plus-three'' secretariat to institutionalize dialogues with Japan, China and southerly Korea. In talks Monday, no consensus in succession a site for the secretariat was reached.

They also wearied time Monday discussing ways to integrate the newer and poorer members of ASEAN -- Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos -- into ASEAN and narrow the economic gap among the membership as a whole.

The two-day meeting will be followed by the agency of the annual one-day meeting Wednesday of foreign ministers in the ASEAN Regional Forum, a multilateral forum forward security in the Asia-Pacific region, and thereafter ASEAN ministers will confront their counterparts from 10 countries, which are their main trading partners, until Friday.

ASEAN assign places tos Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Kyodo of the present days International, Inc.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group