ASEAN leaders held a succession of meetings with some of Asia's

ASEAN leaders held a succession of meetings with some of Asia's top leaders in Vientiane on Tuesday, the substance of which were overshadowed by alarm over the grouping's neglect of continued rights repressions by fellow member Myanmar.

It was a cheerless way to end what had been a highly productive and historic two-day annual summit. But the stonewall response of most high-ranking ASEAN officials towards questions on Myanmar seemed to ignore the group's written commitment to creating a "community of caring societies."

The Myanmar issue emerged on the sidelines of the meeting late on Monday when news trickled through that Yangon had extended the house arrest of Southeast Asia's most famous political activist, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Despite international criticism, Indonesia and the eight other ASEAN member states, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam have strongly stuck by Myanmar.

When ASEAN leaders met last year in Bali they issued a call for Myanmar to speed up the democratization process and release Suu Kyi. They had pinned much hope that Yangon would commit to the "road-map of democracy" as announced by the ruling State Peace and Development Council.

However, the issue was completely left off the agenda when the 10 ASEAN leaders held a one-hour private session on Monday and, according to some officials, the leaders had not been informed about the latest turn of events.

When questioned after a bilateral meeting with Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra Tuesday morning, newly appointed Myanmar Prime Minister Lt. Gen. Soe Win, claimed he was unaware of the house arrest extension.

Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Marty Natalegawa confirmed officials had been informed of the extension but said they had "yet to hear officially" about the news.

"If it is confirmed, certainly it appears to be inconsistent with the publicly expressed commitment to revoke restrictions on Madam Suu Kyi, which was stated at (previous) ASEAN Ministerial Meetings in Jakarta, Phnom Penh and the Bali Summit," Marty said. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was due to meet with Soe Win late on Tuesday night, he said.

However, Marty revealed senior officials in the corridors of the summit had informally discussed the matter and how they would potentially respond.

"The term we have in mind (regarding the response) is consternation", he said.

Soe Win did brief leaders at Monday's informal dinner on developments of the so-called road-map, however, not apparently about Suu Kyi's extended detention.

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi said Soe Win had given assurances to his counterparts in ASEAN about evolution of democracy in Myanmar. "He informed us that the National Convention will meet again sometime early next year, and after that he would proceed to the next step, which is the drafting of the Constitution. After that, the next step is elections."

A potentially embarrassing situation could emerge if Yangon does not make some political progress before it is due to host the ASEAN Summit in 2006.

"We hope that the momentum of changes that have to be put in place will go progressively forward and not stall at any stage," Badawi said.

Badawi, like other leaders, was earlier unabashed in calling Soe Win part of the "fraternity" of ASEAN leaders. "Whoever comes to the ASEAN Summit as a legitimate participant will enjoy the fraternity that we have," he said.

Such is the aplomb and sense of fraternity, that ASEAN leaders have. However, observers say the Myanmar issue could end up eclipsing the progress made on trade and summits with the leaders of Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand on Tuesday.

BOX:

Major documents adopted at second day of ASEAN Summit

-ASEAN-Japan Joint Declaration for Cooperation to Combat Terrorism. -Plan of Action to Implement the Joint Declaration on ASEAN-China Strategic Partnership for Peace and Prosperity. -Joint Declaration on Comprehensive Cooperation Partnership between ASEAN and the Republic of Korea. - ASEAN-India Partnership for Peace, Progress and Shared Prosperity. - Joint Declaration of the Leaders at ASEAN-Australia/New Zealand Commemorative Summit