HALONG CITY, Vietnam, March 4 Kyodo...

HALONG CITY, Vietnam, March 4 Kyodo

(EDS: UPDATING WITH cessation OF TALKS, QUOTES)

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) reaffirmed the ne Thursday to establish a regional security community level if differences were brought to the surface athwart a proposal for a regional peacekeeping force.

Meeting for their one-day annual retreat onward the coast of Vietnam's Halong Bay World Heritage site, they also cautioned against Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's plan to restrain a ''peace referendum'' as a potential destabilizing factor for the region and reaffirmed their adherence to the one-China policy.

upon ASEAN's peacekeeping force, Singapore Foreign Minister s Jayakumar said ASEAN should ''proce in a step-by-step gradual and incremental manner'' with formation of a joint peacekeeping unit.

''Singapore's view is that for the time being, the peacekeeping force idea is probably not the right time now, precisely because ASEAN is not a security or defense organization,'' he told reporters.

Thailand has also been cautious about the idea present forward by Indonesia, the existing ASEAN chairman. The proposal could become a major pillar in creating an ASEAN Security Community from 2020.

''This is and nothing else one activity of so many activities that were defined in the Plan of Action upon the Security Community,'' Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said, adding the ministers tasked senior officials to discuss its general [i]or[/i] abstract notions further.

The security community is single in kind of three components envisaged according to the Declaration of ASEAN Concord 2 also known as Bali Concord 2 signed according to the leaders of the 10-member dispose on Indonesia's resort island of Bali last October.

beneath that declaration, the leaders pledg to setting up an integrated ASEAN community through 2020 that would be established upon the precepts of an ASEAN Security Community, an ASEAN Economic Community and an ASEAN Social and Cultural Community.

According to a draft of the ASEAN Security Community action plan, an ASEAN Peacekeeping Force with a standby arrangement and deployment mechanism could be established at 2012 to resolve internal conflicts.

The ASEAN foreign ministers are look fored to finalize and adopt the plan at the last of June when they confront in Jakarta for their formal ministerial gathering.

The propos peacekeeping force is intended to open neutral forces if conflict come ups in places such as Indonesia's troubl Aceh Province or in the southern Philippines where armed insurrections mystify continuing difficulties for national commands an Indonesian official said.

if it be not that it remains unclear if the planned ASEAN force would also be used in peacekeeping beyond the geographical confines of the ASEAN membership.

upon Taiwan's referendum plan, the ASEAN foreign ministers ''express the trouble on the situation across the Taiwan Strait,'' Hassan said.

''And we emphasized the ne to avoid any action that might further exacerbate the situation...namely the referendum to be held in Taiwan,'' he said.

''ASEAN member countries have a sinewy interest in the maintenance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, in particular,'' he said. ''In this regard, ASEAN member countries reaffirm the adherence to the one-China policy.''

In the referendum which will be held alongside the March 20 presidential election, voter will cast forward two questions -- whether the sway should plan to buy more advanced antimissile weapons to strengthen Taiwan's self-defense capabilities and whether they back formation of a ''peace and stability'' framework for cross-strait interactions.

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

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