Asia needs U.S. to avoid crash

Asia needs U.S. to avoid crash

MANILA (Reuters): The Philippines said yesterday that support from the United States was vital if Asia was to avoid a depression.

Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said a depression could spark regional conflicts unless it received outside help.

"We don't want that scenario to recur here and this is why the U.S. involvement is important because a major economy has to be involved to ensure that we don't enter a major depression in Asia and because of depression, we'll end up waging wars against each other, a repeat of the pre-Second World War scenario in Europe," Siazon told a news conference.

He said the far-reaching impact of the Asian financial turmoil would top the agenda of the meetings in Manila later this month among the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and their allies.

Foreign ministers from the ASEAN states of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar are to hold their annual meeting on July 24 - July 25.