E. Asian leaders confident ahead of summit

E. Asian leaders confident ahead of summit

MANILA (AP): Southeast Asian leaders, seeking to ensure economic recovery will gain momentum, arrived Saturday to endorse stronger ties with their northeastern neighbors and efforts to push their agenda with global organizations while making plans for the future.

In a further upbeat note, Philippine President Joseph Estrada said China had agreed to halt any further construction in disputed areas of the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.

The agreement, if confirmed by the Chinese, would represent a major concession by Beijing. Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji is taking part in the weekend summit as an invited guest.

During informal talks over dinner Saturday night and during the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit Sunday, they also will try to spark more structural reforms to fend off disasters like the financial crisis that plagued the region for two years.

With the worst of the crisis apparently over, officials are finally getting the opportunity to look to tomorrow, which raises a number of key questions, especially with China apparently headed for membership in the World Trade Organization and becoming even more of a target for foreign investors.

"How do you make ASEAN attractive?" Philippine Trade Secretary Jose Pardo said. "How do you keep the engines revving and moving faster?"

A key focus in meetings by senior officials in advance of the summit has been to increase cooperation with China, Japan and Korea, possibly laying the groundwork for transforming ASEAN into a more powerful regional force.

Premier Zhu, who flew in to Manila on Friday, said his talks so far had been valuable in developing financial and economic cooperation with other countries in the region, which he said was vital to ensure there would not be another Asian economic crisis.

"The worst part of the crisis is over," Zhu said. But the Chinese leader added that Asian nations needed to continue economic reforms and improve financial regulation.

"If you don't deal with these issues, the possibility of a crisis recurring won't be completely removed," he said.

Zhu provided some good news for ASEAN when he said there is no need to devalue the Chinese yuan. ASEAN officials have cited such a devaluation as one potential threat to the region's recovery.

In addition, Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi will announce a new aid package on Sunday that Thai Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan said would be worth about US$90 million and is in addition to the $82 billion that it earlier pledged to Asian countries hit by the regional financial crisis that began two years ago.

The package is aimed at boosting human resources through exchanges of people, goods and information, officials said Saturday. Obuchi also will announce a major fund for the World Bank and Asia Development Bank to tackle poverty, a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Thai Trade Minister Supachai Panitchpakdi said Saturday that wealthy countries - especially the United States - must make concessions to developing nations if a new round of World Trade Organization negotiations is to succeed.

But he also rejected calls by some developing nations for "wholesale renegotiations" on implementing the last big global accord, which they contend has failed to meet promises of equal benefits from trade between rich and poor countries.

"It would be a monumental task for the WTO to go back and renegotiate past agreements," Supachai said. "It would not augur well for a new round."

Security is tight for the summit, and there was a brief scare Friday night when police, helped by bomb-sniffing dogs, seized a box containing about two kilograms (4.4 pounds) of suspected firecracker powder from a car entering the summit site. Security officials downplayed the incident and released the car's owner after questioning.

Meanwhile, 30 people-power advocates were trying to make sure Saturday that ASEAN leaders, who have been trumpeting their economic rebound, don't forget that poverty and human rights abuses still abound in the region.