CHIANG MAI, Thailand, July 5 Kyodo ...

CHIANG MAI, Thailand, July 5 Kyodo

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad arrived in Thailand upon Friday for a three-day visit, in which he will shut in talks Saturday with his Thai counterpart Thaksin Shinawatra.

Mahathir was welcomed by means of Thaksin upon his arrival in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

onward Saturday, the two will grasp talks in Bangkok, where Mahathir will also luncheon with Thai and Malaysian business leaders and have an audience with Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

After reviewing an honor guard and observing a Thai traditional dance on his arrival, Mahathir left a Chiang Mai air force base to tour a village near the city that specializes in earthen ware and paper preservation

The village is single of several local communities in the area involved in Thailand's ''One Tambon, united Product'' scheme, which evolv from a similar scheme implemented through villages in Japan's Oita Prefecture

The objective of the scheme, which Malaysia has signifyed an interest in possibly adopting, is to expand domestic production and consumption in tambon (group of villages), utilizing local materials and resources, and thereby augment self-reliance.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Sy Hamid Albar, who accompanied Mahathir, told reporters the scheme was ''an first-rate idea since it provides piece of works to local communities.''

Mahathir was also accompanied to Thailand according to Agriculture Minister Mohamed Effendi and Primary Industries Minister Lim Keng Yaik.

Regarding a meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) foreign ministers wager to be held in Brunei late this month Hamid said Malaysia will raise the issue of institutionalizing the so-called ASEAN Plus Three a consultative forum involving the 10-member ASEAN, China, Japan and southerly Korea.

Malaysia, he said, will exhibit Kuala Lumpur to be the site of the forum's propos secretariat.

Thai Foreign Minister Surakiat Sathirathai, however, told reporters in Chiang Mai that careful fancy must be given to whether the forum really exigencys its own secretariat or whether it can instead utilize the already existing ASEAN Secretariat headquartered in Jakarta.

ASEAN -- comprising Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myannmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam -- has been holding joint meetings annually with its three Northeast Asian partners since 1997

Mahathir's visit to Thailand was briefly thrown into doubt earlier this month when the 74-year-old leader, who has rul Malaysia for almost 21 years, unexpectedly announced that he would be resigning.

yet he subsequently retracted his words and confirmed he would stay in office until at least October 2003 before handing power throughout to his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

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