Manila pulls plug on Asian summit, blames weather

CEBU, Philippines, Dec 8 (Reuters) The Philippines postponed a high-profile summit of Asian leaders until early January today due to concerns an incoming tropical storm could wreck havoc at the venue this weekend.

Presidents and prime ministers from 16 countries were due to start arriving on the central island of Cebu and nearby Mactan Island tomorrow for the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting and an East Asia summit on December 11-13.

''The Philippine government arrived at this decision in consultation with the governments of the leaders participating in the summit,'' Marciano Paynor, Secretary-General for the ASEAN Organising Committee, told a hastily-convened media conference.

Paynor said the unprecedented decision had nothing to do with warnings from the US, British and Australian governments earlier this week that terrorists were planning to bomb the gathering.

According to forecasters a tropical storm, currently over the northwest Pacific Ocean, will land in the central Philippines tomorrow but will pass north of Cebu. The storm was earlier forecast to pass through the resort island.

Storm tracking Web site, www.tropicalstormrisk.com, shows the storm developing into a typhoon over the South China Sea next week after leaving the Philippine archipelago.

Officials insisted, however, that they had to take drastic action because tropical storms can change direction and pick up speed dramatically.

''Weather conditions, like one's health, can change in a matter of hours,'' Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros told reporters.

Finance ministers and foreign ministers from across the region will continue meeting over the weekend but the main summits will now take place in the first half of January.

Last week, Typhoon Durian swept through the central Philippines triggering landslides and floods that are feared to have killed over 1,000 people, forcing President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to declare a state of calamity.

Nearly 7,000 delegates and journalists were expected to throng Cebu this weekend to attend scores of conferences and briefings associated with the main summits.

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

REUTERS AB HS1603