Food poisoning strikes performers at Asian summit

CEBU, Philippines Jan 14 (Reuters) Food poisoning laid low dozens of performers, including two beauty queens, at an Asian summit this weekend but the show will still go on, organisers said today.

Around 60 dancers and production staff were struck after eating palabok, a Philippine seafood noodle dish, yesterday, the day before they were due to perform for 16 Asian leaders at a gala dinner on the central Philippine island of Cebu.

''They have been given clearance to perform by their doctors,'' Victoriano Lecaros, ASEAN spokesman in the Philippines, told reporters.

Singers, led by the country's Broadway star Lea Salonga, will serenade the VIPs with hits from ''Les Miserables'' and ''Mulan'' at the banquet, hosted by Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Filipino beauty queens -- including two former Miss Universes -- will model gowns made from local fibres such as banana, pineapple and hemp for the leaders from Southeast Asia, China, Japan, India, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The dignitaries -- in town to discuss trade, security and reducing poverty -- will be served a lavish dinner of coconut soup, grilled lobster and seafood salad, served in black, mother-of-pearl shells.

Palabok is not on the menu.

REUTERS SSC VC1516