SE Asia urges Korea breakthrough, warns of arms race

CEBU, Philippines, Jan 14 (Reuters) Southeast Asian countries will urge China, Japan and South Korea today to find fresh ideas to resolve the North Korean nuclear crisis and remove the threat of an atomic arms race in the region.

The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which wants to establish itself as a world player, will wade into the discussion on North Korea at a regional summit in the central Philippines, according to documents seen by Reuters.

China and Japan are both seeking to influence ASEAN, which on Saturday brought forward its target date for economic integration to 2015 and agreed to become a rules-based bloc with teeth, a bold departure for a group frequently derided as a talking shop.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao sealed a trade pact with ASEAN and said both sides would continue to advance their ''strategic partnership'' this year.

Later, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, fresh from a tour of Europe, was to highlight Tokyo's desire to play a more prominent security role in the region with an agreement to support Southeast Asian maritime security.

Although competing for ASEAN's affections, Wen and Abe were keen to display warmer bilateral relations in a meeting on the resort island of Cebu after years of hostility under Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi.

''We are happy to see China-Japan relations advancing forward, this is in tune with the interests of people of both countries, and of Asia, and the world,'' Wen was quoted as telling Abe.

DEBATING NUCLEAR BAN The two leaders were also to hold talks with South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in their first trilateral meeting since Abe took office last September.

The Philippines, which holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship, will ask the three countries to work together to convince the reclusive regime of Kim Jong-il to abandon its nuclear ambitions, which have encouraged Tokyo to begin to debate whether to drop its own ban on developing nuclear weapons.

''It may be tempting for Japan to consider becoming a nuclear weapon state, particularly after the nuclear test by DPRK (North Korea) last 9 October,'' Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will say at ASEAN's meeting with Japan.

''But the possession of nuclear weapons by more countries in our region will only lead to greater risks, not less. North Korea's nuclear weapons programme therefore cannot be allowed to stand.'' MORE REUTERS SP RK1413