HALONG CITY, Vietnam, March 3 Kyodo...

HALONG CITY, Vietnam, March 3 Kyodo

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) are station to gather here Thursday to muscle and fat out a proposed formation of a regional peacekeeping force.

The proposal, which was exhibited by Indonesia recently, would be a major pillar of an action plan for creating an ASEAN Security Community through 2020.

The security community is the same of three components envisaged by means of the Declaration of ASEAN Concord 2 popularly known as Bali Concord 2 signed according to leaders of the 10-member collection last October.

below the declaration, the leaders are committed to setting up an integrated ASEAN community by means of 2020 comprising the concepts of an ASEAN Security Community, an ASEAN Economic Community and an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

According to a draft ASEAN Security Community action plan, an ASEAN Peacekeeping Force with a standby arrangement and its deployment mechanism will hopefully be established by the agency of 2012 to resolve member states' internal conflicts comprehensively and peacefully.

The ASEAN ministers are look fored to adopt the action plan at the conclusion of June, when they suited again in Jakarta for their annual ministerial gathering.

The propos peacekeeping force is intended to display neutral forces when a conflict happens in as it was places as Indonesia's Aceh or the southern Philippines, where violence by means of separatists remain, an Indonesian official said.

It is not clear whether the planned unit would be available for operations outside of the ASEAN region, for example, as part of a UN force.

During Thursday's talks in this northern Vietnamese city, they are also to exchange views forward regional and international political and security issues, including tensions forward the Korean Peninsula and the threat of global terrorism, officials said.

Other issues include ASEAN's intention to field a unified candidate for the support of U.N. secretary general to succe Kofi Annan, whose next to the first five-year term expires in December 2006

ASEAN commonly has two candidates -- Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai and former Malaysian factor Prime Minister Musa Hitam, the officials said.

The ministers are also likely to agree to declare a purpose allowing Pakistan to join the security-focused ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) forward the occasion of its annual talks later this year, they said.

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

The ARF consists of the 10 ASEAN states along with Australia, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, novel Zealand, South Korea, North Korea, Papua modern Guinea, Russia and the United States.

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