Japan's PM to attend rescheduled Asian summit-source

MANILA, Dec 14 (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has confirmed he will cut short a trip to Europe and attend a rescheduled gathering of Asian leaders in the central Philippines next month, a Philippine diplomat said today.

There was no official confirmation of this from either the Philippine or the Japanese government.

Manila, which hastily postponed the Cebu City summit of 16 Asian leaders last week due to a typhoon, has rescheduled the meeting for January 10-15.

''We were told that Prime Minister Abe attaches great importance to these meetings with his counterparts in Southeast and Northeast Asia,'' said the senior diplomat, who declined to be named.

The diplomat said Abe had opted to cut short his European programme so as to attend the East Asia summit and meet Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun on January 14.

Abe took office in late September committed to improving ties with Japan's two major East Asian neighbours which had suffered badly during the five-year term of his predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

Ambassador Marciano Paynor, head of the Philippine organising committee, said the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit would go ahead in Cebu City after all 10 leaders confirmed their attendance on the proposed dates.

Paynor said Manila was still awaiting confirmation from China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand that the dates suited their leaders to meet their ASEAN counterparts.

The ambassador dismissed reports that bomb threats from Muslim militants and potential political unrest in Manila had caused postponement of the meetings first set for December 11-13.

''The only reason for the postponement was typhoon Seniang,'' Paynor said, using the local name of typhoon Utor, which killed 27 people in the Philippines last weekend. Manila currently holds the rotating chair of ASEAN, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

REUTERS BDP HT1747