Foreign ministers of the 10 member states will gather in Kuala Lumpur for their annual meeting and they are looking for ways to try to speed up political reform in militaryrun Burma.

Rangoon's sevenstep "road map" towards democracy and national reconciliation is moving at a snail's pace. But Asean's previous moves to spur the junta into action have yielded little.

The Kuala Lumpur meeting is not expected to produce any break¬through on the political deadlock, a Foreign Ministry official said.

Foreign Minister Kantathi Suphamongkhon will propose the group enhance the role of Asean chairman to allow more engage¬ment with Rangoon and effort to persuade the junta to democratise, Asean Affairs Department director Nopadol Gunavibool said.

Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar, the current chairman of the group, failed to make any progress on his visit to Burma in March. The junta rejected his idea that they meet all stake holders in Burmese politics, including opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

Asean needed to put more effort in maintaining contact with the junta, Nopadol said, because Burma was about to shut down channels of engagement with the group.

"The international community has seen that our regional approach toward Burma does not work, so we need to prove it can work," he told reporters. "If the Asean is able to maintain its role in engaging with Burma, it would help boost creditability of the group, as well as the junta's capacity to engage with the international community."

Many Asean members have dif¬ferent ideas over the political dead¬lock in Burma. Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore and the Philippines want to see Asean take a tougher approach toward the junta and are happy to see the issue of Burma discussed by the United Nations Security Council.

But newer members including Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam are happy to see a more lenient stance.

Thailand, Nopadol said, did not want to see a rift among Asean members over Burma and would prefer to see the group adopt a unit¬ed stance on handling the issue.

Supalak Ganjanakhundee

The Nation