SE Asian leaders to hold SARS summit in Bangkok
SE Asian leaders to hold SARS summit in Bangkok
Agencies, Bangkok/Beijing
Southeast Asian leaders will meet in Bangkok this month to hammer out ways to tackle the deadly Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus that has struck a blow to their economies, a Thai minister said on Thursday.
Public Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan told reporters the leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) had confirmed they would attend a one-day meeting on April 29 in Bangkok.
"The objective of this summit is to seek ways and means to cooperate and reduce the negative impact on people's health and the economies in the region," Sudarat said.
But two ASEAN leaders said they will send their deputies to attend the one-day SARS summit in Thailand later this month, while China has been invited, the Thai government said on Friday.
"As of now Myanmar's leader (Senior General Than Shwe), who is busy with another engagement, and Malaysia's leader (Mahathir Mohamad ) are unable to attend the summit, but they will assign their deputies to attend," government spokesman Sita Divari told reporters.
Sita said Thailand has issued an invitation to China to attend and expressed optimism it would respond positively.
"We do expect the summit to be ASEAN plus China. We are waiting for an answer," he said.
The atypical pneumonia has killed more than 160 around the world and sickened more than 3,600, mostly in Asia. Four ASEAN countries have recorded SARS deaths: Singapore (13), Vietnam (5), Thailand (2) and Malaysia (1).
ASEAN groups Brunei, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
In another development, ASEAN has asked China to postpone an annual meeting of senior officials because of the spread of the deadly flu-like SARS virus, ASEAN diplomats said on Friday.
The meeting had been scheduled to be held in southern China, where SARS surfaced in November.
There was no immediate comment from China, which one diplomat said had suggested the venue of the April 23-24 meeting be moved to the northeastern port city of Dalian which has not reported any cases of SARS.
"ASEAN had a consensus requesting China to postpone. It was conveyed to the Chinese side. There has been no response," one diplomat told Reuters.
A second diplomat said: "One country proposed to postpone the meeting. This is now the position of ASEAN as a whole."
Many regional meetings and business conferences have been canceled because of SARS, which has killed 67 people and infected 1,460 in China -- about half of the global toll.
The group has also postponed a meeting of its finance ministers in Manila initially scheduled for April 25-26.