'All systems go for delayed Asia summit'

Manila, Jan 3: Leaders from 16 Asian nations have confirmed they will attend a rescheduled summit on the Philippine island of Cebu next week, organisers said today, while the military said they saw no security threat to the gathering.

The East Asia summit was postponed from December, ostensibly because of concerns over an incoming typhoon. News reports also spoke of warnings from the U S, British and Australian governments of plans for a terrorist bomb attack.

''On the ground, there is no threat, there is no validated threat,'' Philippine military spokesman Lieutenant-colonel Bartolome Bacarro told reporters.

He said about 5,500 soldiers and 7,000 policemen would be on duty on Cebu during the Janaury 10-15 meeting.

''The Armed Forces of the Philippines component, in coordination with the Philippine National Police, will be able to provide security to the dignitaries who are arriving,'' he said.

The summit will bring together presidents and prime ministers from Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea with leaders from the ten-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Marciano Paynor, secretary general of the ASEAN Organising committee, told Reuters that all the leaders had confirmed their attendance.

Senior officials from the region were to meet on January 10, with foreign ministers conferring on Janaury 11 and 12. Leaders would meet over the next three days, he said.

''All preparations, all systems are go,'' the Philippine president's executive secretary, Eduardo Ermita, told reporters earlier in the day.

''The threat of terrorism is always present, summit or no summit.

But the government agencies like the police, the armed forces and the Anti-Terrorism Task Force are ready and prepared to counter any threat.'' ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

REUTERS