A general view of the 10th ASEAN summit (AFP)

VIENTIANE, Laos, November 29 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Southeast Asian countries sealed Monday, November 29, a six-year plan to fast-track trade liberalization and regional integration leading to the creation of a European-style market by 2020.

Security and border patrols took central stage at the summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), also overshadowed by the oppression of Muslims inThailand's restive south, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Leaders of the 10-member grouping adopted the Vientiane Action Programme, the second in a series of plans to steer the ASEAN towards its long-term vision.

The plan aims to “remove, where feasible, barriers to the free flow of goods, services and skilled labor, and freer flow of capital by 2010.”

Tariffs for products will be removed by 2010 for ASEAN's six more developed members --Brunei,Indonesia,Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore andThailand -- and 2015 for Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

A separate agreement was signed to liberalise tariffs in 11 key sectors, including autos, textiles and electronics, by 2007 for the six more developed members and 2012 for the other four.

The agreement is one of the key measures in ASEAN's vision to establish a single market of more than 500 million people by 2020, or earlier, to attract investors who see ASEAN as a fragmented market.

The ASEAN leaders were later Monday to sign with China historic trade pacts paving the way for the world's biggest free-trade zone, covering two billion people, which could eventually include the rest of Northeast Asia and India.

The leaders were to meet on Tuesday, November 28, with their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea and India for discussions on a web of bilateral free-trade agreements they hope could lead to a broader economic bloc.

Australia and New Zealand are attending the ASEAN summit for the first time with their leaders hoping to agree at meetings Tuesday to begin talks on a free trade deal.

The ASEAN region has a population of about 500 million, a combined gross domestic product of $737 billion and a total trade of $ 720 billion.

Thai Muslims

Thaksin threatened to walk out of the summit if leaders raised the conditions of Muslims in the restive south (AFP)

Concerns over the unrest in southern Thailand was kept to the sidelines of the two-day summit.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has threatened to walk out of the summit if leaders raised the conditions of Muslims in the restive south, insisting it was a domestic problem.

He met Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Sunday, November 28, to discuss the situation in the restive region.

“Thaksin volunteered details about the unrest in Muslim-majority southern Thailand when he met Prime Minister Badawi and President Yudhoyono,” his spokesman said.

“In fact, the Malaysian leader at the summit this morning mentioned the fact that the principle of not interfering in each other's affairs remains one of the most important tenets that holds ASEAN together,” he added.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said Thaksin was very clear in saying that he had no problem sharing information about the south but the problem was sharing it in the ASEAN forum.

“They don’t wish to multilateralise the problem,” he added.

The three leaders, however, agreed to boost cooperation on security.

Officials have warned that Thaksin's hardline approach could divide the 10-member association.

Some ASEAN members had wanted the issue to be raised because of fears the unrest could spill over Thailand's borders, particularly into neighboring Malaysia.

Decades-old violence in Muslim-majority southern Thailand resurfaced at the beginning of this year and has since left around 550 people dead.

Concern about the unrest was inflamed by the October 25 deaths of 87 Muslims, mostly through suffocation after they were piled into army trucks.

Human Trafficking

The ASEAN summiteers have additionally adopted a declaration which said there was an “urgent need for a comprehensive regional approach to fight trafficking in women and children.”

The United Nations estimates more than 200,000 women and children are being trafficked annually in Asia.

Under the declaration, ASEAN members are to establish a network to coordinate their efforts against trafficking and adopt measures to prevent the tampering of passports and other travel documents.

They will also regularly exchange information on immigration, intensify cooperation among immigration and legal authorities, and work to ensure that victims of human trafficking  are given medical care and other assistance.

Cambodia,China, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam and Myanmar signed an agreement last month on cooperation regarding trafficking combat.

The ASEAN was established on 8 August 1967 in Bangkok by Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.

Brunei Darussalam joined on 8 January 1984, Vietnam on 28 July 1995, Laos and Myanmar on 23 July 1997, and Cambodia on 30 April 1999.