ASEAN leaders talk climate and energy, no targets

CEBU, Philippines, Jan 15 (Reuters) Asian countries today discussed an energy security pact that seeks to reduce oil dependency and greenhouse gas emissions, but without specific targets.

Southeast Asian chiefs along with the heads of China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand held their second East Asia summit in a more constructive atmosphere to last year as Beijing and Tokyo used the meeting to further mend ties.

''This year is more focused on substance. Last year it was like a house-warming party, everybody came and got to know each other'' Ong Keng Yong, secretary-general of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), told reporters.

''This year the leaders want to have some substance.

The 16 countries, representing half the world's population and a fifth of global trade, will discuss North Korea's nuclear ambitions, financial integration, disaster mitigation and bird flu.

But the centre-piece of their talks, held amid a whirl of Filipino pageantry on the central resort island of Cebu, will be an energy security pact that seeks to reduce the region's dependence on costly crude oil and help stave off climate change.

Unlike the European Union, however, which last week unveiled ambitious energy proposals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20 per cent, the leaders, who run some of the most polluted nations on earth, offered no concrete targets.

NORTH KOREA The leaders will unite in support of enforcing UN sanctions imposed on North Korea after its atomic and missile tests last year, and of the six-party talks aimed at inducing North Korea to give up its nuclear weapon ambitions.

The Philippines, which holds ASEAN's rotating chairmanship, raised the spectre of a regional nuclear arms race in talks on Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions yesterday.

''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 told Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. ''North Korea's nuclear weapons programme therefore cannot be allowed to stand.'' Both Abe and China's Premier Wen Jiabao are vying to influence ASEAN as it becomes a more integrated political and economic bloc.

Abe, fresh from a tour of Europe where he pitched a more assertive diplomatic stance, highlighted Tokyo's desire to play a more prominent security role in the region by agreeing to support Southeast Asian maritime security.

China and ASEAN yesterday agreed to slash barriers on trade in services such as telecoms and transport, which Wen said is a ''crucial step'' toward creating the world's most populous free trade area.

In Cebu, riot police used batons and shields to hold back hundreds of left-wing protesters outside Arroyo's official residence in the port city. It has been the only significant incident at the summit after a series of bomb blasts last week in the south blamed on Islamic militants.

In a key breakthrough, Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao agreed on a visit to Japan in April, the first top-level Chinese trip to the country in over six years and the clearest sign yet that relations are improving.

Abe's predecessor, Junichiro Koizumi, triggered uproar in the region with repeated trips to Tokyo's Yasukuni war shrine, seen by critics as glorifying Japan's World War II militarism.

The bad feeling overhung last year's East Asia summit, which was part of a process of creating trade and security ties within the region.

The leaders, who will also endorse a birdflu prevention ''road map'' sharing best practices today, are anxious not to develop into a talking shop.

''The discussion so far has revolved around how do we give meaty stuff without bringing about more meetings. So far so good,'' said Ong.

REUTERS SY BD0949