ASEAN breaks deadlock on human rights

MANILA (AFP) - Southeast Asian nations broke the deadlock on creating a new regional human rights body but have left the details to be worked out later, diplomats said on Monday.

With just weeks to go before the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adopts its first-ever charter, the 10-nation bloc had been at odds over forming a human rights commission.

Facing strong objections from member state Myanmar, the group scrapped plans to spell out proposals for the commission in the charter, which ASEAN's foreign ministers will approve at talks which began earlier Monday in Manila.

Diplomats said that language about a new human rights "body" would be included in the charter but failed to give any further details, saying that would be worked out between the countries at a later date.

"We have agreed to establish a human rights body," said Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo.

"We will bring it up to the (national) leaders, and the leaders -- in their own wisdom and as a committee of peers -- will make their own deliberations," Yeo said.

"Myanmar takes a positive attitude towards these developments," he added.

Philippine Foreign Secretary Alberto Romulo told reporters after talks with his ASEAN counterparts that they had agreed on several provisions to be included in the proposed charter.

"I am pleased to announce that among the issues on which there was consensus among the ASEAN foreign ministers is the inclusion of a provision in the ASEAN charter that mandates the creation of a human rights body," he said.

ASEAN has been repeatedly embarrassed by its failure to exercise influence over Myanmar, which joined the bloc in 1997 despite fierce opposition from Western nations.

The country's military rulers have flouted calls to move swiftly to restore democracy, and the dispute over the rights commission threatened to mar ASEAN's creation of the charter, a landmark document in its 40-year history.

The charter aims to bind the region closer together, with new agreements on everything from tourism to terrorism, and transform ASEAN into an EU-style bloc with rules and norms to which all 10 nations will have to adhere.

It is to be formally adopted at ASEAN's next summit in Singapore in September.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.