Nuke-free status discussed

Nuke-free status discussed

HANOI (Reuters): Senior Southeast Asian officials wrapped up on Saturday a three-day regional security meeting in Hanoi with talks on a protocol to make the region a nuclear-free zone.

Officials from the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) met on Saturday morning with diplomats from five nuclear- capable nations - China, France, Russia, Britain and the United States - to discuss the proposal.

ASEAN has declared itself a nuclear weapons free zone.

Delegations from the United States and North Korea left the country on Saturday without a hoped-for meeting on the sidelines of the forum to reopen dialogue between the superpower and the Stalinist country it calls a threat to world stability.

The Hanoi talks were a preliminary meeting to set the agenda for the annual ASEAN Regional Forum to be held in the Vietnamese capital in July.