Philippines Could Block New Asia Charter

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The Philippines warned Monday it is unlikely to ratify a landmark Southeast Asian charter on financial, trade and environmental rules for its members unless Myanmar restores democracy.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations later abruptly canceled a scheduled address by U.N. envoy Ibrahim Gambari on Myanmar after the military-ruled country objected. But Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo agreed to meet with Gambari to discuss his efforts to restore democracy in Myanmar, Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo said Tuesday.

The new ASEAN charter would set up enforceable rules for its members. It will fail if one country refuses to ratify it. The pact would set up a regional human rights body that critics have labeled toothless because it will not be able to punish governments found to violate citizens' rights.

Myanmar, also known as Burma, crushed peaceful demonstrations in September, killing at least 15 people, and has kept pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi in detention for 12 of the last 18 years.

"The expectation of the Philippines is that if Myanmar signs the charter, it is committed to returning to the path of democracy and releasing Aung San Suu Kyi," Arroyo told Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, Myanmar's prime minister, during a one-on-one meeting in Singapore. "Until the Philippine Congress sees that happen, it would have extreme difficulty in ratifying the ... charter."

A copy of her remarks was given to reporters.

"We have a very good charter. I think everybody should be happy. It's quite balanced," senior Myanmar diplomat U Aung Bwa said.

The top U.S. trade official warned ASEAN that its lack of action against Myanmar's junta jeopardized progress on expanding a trade and investment pact signed last year with the United States, the region's top trading partner.

ASEAN "has a special responsibility when it comes to the situation in Burma," U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said after a meeting with ASEAN economic ministers. "The reputation and credibility of ASEAN as an organization has been called into question because of the situation in Burma."

Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, the chairman of ASEAN, had invited Gambari to deliver an address Wednesday about his recent progress with Myanmar's junta in recent weeks.

But during a dinner meeting of ASEAN leaders, Myanmar Prime Minister Thein Sein insisted that Gambari should only report to the U.N., said Lee.

"The ASEAN leaders agreed that ASEAN would respect Myanmar's wishes and make way for Myanmar to deal directly with the U.N. and the international community on its own," Lee said.

In view of Myanmar's position, Gambari "will not brief the ASEAN or the East Asia Summit leaders," Lee said. "The ASEAN leaders agreed that ASEAN would respect Myanmar's wishes and make way for Myanmar to deal directly with the U.N. and the international community on its own."

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he had not been officially informed by Lee about the cancellation of Gambari's invitation to address the summit.

Ban said he met Gambari before he left for Singapore on Sunday "and we discussed how we should deal with all this."

"It would have been desirable and better for Gambari to report and brief the East Asia summit leaders on the situation in Myanmar," he said, adding that he needed to discuss the matter with the Singaporean prime minister.

"My commitment and United Nations' commitment to see and help (the) democratization process of Myanmar is unchanged (and) will continue," Ban stressed.

The leaders took several hours to draft the joint statement over dinner. They could be heard squabbling over the wording until just before midnight as the microphone at a nearby podium was inadvertently turned on.

At a meeting in Brussels, Belgium, EU foreign ministers gave final approval to bans on imports of timber, gemstones and precious metals from Myanmar and left the door open to further sanctions including a ban on junta members using Europe-based banks.

The new sanctions follow an arms embargo, a travel ban on Myanmar officials and a freeze of their assets in Europe.

The EU ministers said European leaders would use a meeting with ASEAN officials Thursday to push the bloc to do more to sway Myanmar to end its crackdown on pro-democracy groups.

Suu Kyi met Monday for a third time with the cabinet minister designated to handle relations with her in the latest effort to nudge along political reconciliation in Myanmar.

Details of the meeting were not made available.

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Associated Press writers Eileen Ng and Vijay Joshi in Singapore and Constant Brand in Brussels contributed to this report.

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