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TOKYO (AFP) - Southeast Asia should learn lessons from the European Union's eastward expansion as it considers deeper economic ties with nations such as India, Singapore's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew said Thursday.

Lee compared the relationship between Southeast Asia and India to Turkey's bid to join the European Union, to which new French President Nicolas Sarkozy is staunchly opposed because most of its territory is in Asia.

"Even in Europe if you look at the difficulties of whether Turkey should be a member of the union, you have quite a few countries, including the newly elected president of France, saying Turkey cannot join the union," Lee said during an economic forum in Tokyo.

The 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus Japan, China and South Korea, as well as Australia, New Zealand and India formed the East Asia Summit in 2005, which is seen as a possible precursor to an eventual giant free-trade bloc.