ASEAN health ministers to hold talks in Malaysia
ASEAN health ministers to hold talks in Malaysia
Agence France-Presse, Kuala Lumpur
Southeast Asian health ministers will gather here on Saturday for a meeting to discuss ways of combating the SARS virus, a Malaysian minister said on Tuesday.
Health Minister Chua Jui Meng said ministers from China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Japan have also been invited to the meeting, which would be opened by acting Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Chua said the meeting would discuss the need to impose health declaration cards for visitors from East Asia as well as sharing laboratories to fight the spread of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus.
They would also focus on airport control measures, especially on improving the screening of travelers, he was quoted as saying by Bernama news agency.
Senior officials would meet on Friday to lay the groundwork for the ministerial meeting to be held at the administrative capital of Putrajaya.
Chua said ministers from Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei and Indonesia have so far confirmed their attendance.
A declaration to be issued by the ministers would be submitted to ASEAN leaders at their summit in Bangkok on April 29 to discuss SARS, he added.
All 10 ASEAN leaders are expected to attend the unprecedented SARS summit in Bangkok next week, Thailand's foreign minister said Tuesday.
"Every leader will come," Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai told reporters.
"The prime minister has assigned me to coordinate with all ASEAN leaders and to my understanding all leaders including (Myanmar's Senior General) Than Shwe, the Laotian prime minister and President Megawati (Soekarnoputri of Indonesia) will attend the summit," he added.
The rare emergency meeting on April 29 of ASEAN leaders to discuss the SARS crisis was announced last week by Thailand at Singapore's initiative, and will be chaired by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The Thai government said shortly afterward that Myanmar's Than Shwe would assign a deputy to attend the one-day meeting, to be held at the foreign ministry in Bangkok.
Surakiart said Malaysia's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who is on an extended break before his retirement in October, would dispatch acting prime minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi to attend.
"Mahathir is on vacation, so his deputy Badawi will represent Mahathir at the summit," Surakiart said.
Another ministerial meeting is expected to be held in Manila ahead of the summit, officials said.
Five of the 10 Association of Southeast Asian Nations have recorded SARS deaths -- Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines.