Asia forum plans multinational disaster exercises

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia-Pacific nations are calling for greater civil-military coordination in dealing with major disasters, according to a draft declaration to be adopted after their meeting on Thursday.

The ASEAN Regional Forum, which brings together the 10 members of the Association of South East Asian Nations with Asia-Pacific powers, held wide-ranging talks about threats to the region's security and prosperity.

But much of the emphasis in the document was about disaster management in a region that has seen international aid efforts mounted after a major cyclone in Myanmar and a devastating earthquake in China in recent months, and where worries persist about a potential bird flu pandemic.

One of the sticking points, it notes, will be to find a template for agreements that would allow foreign military forces to be deployed for disaster relief.

"This should be bilateral, voluntary and only a tool that could be called upon for use between interested and affected and assisting states as needed," the draft says.

The forum, which has ambitions ultimately of evolving beyond a "talking shop," gave a big round of applause to six of its participants, who had what was described as "a good meeting" on Wednesday on North Korean nuclear disarmament.

"The ministers emphasized the importance of the early establishment of an effective verification mechanism with the IAEA playing a leading role," it said.

On Friday, U.S. North Korea negotiator Christopher Hill plans to visit the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna to discuss a dossier on North Korea's nuclear program, delivered by Pyongyang in late June after much delay, and how the U.N. nuclear watchdog can be involved.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters the meeting -- the first time a U.S. foreign minister sat down with the North Koreans since 2004 -- delivered a strong message that Pyongyang must quickly agree to a mechanism for verifying its nuclear activities circulated earlier this month.

"I don't think the North Koreans left with any illusions about the fact that the ball is in their court and that everybody believes they have got to respond and respond positively on verification," Rice told reporters.

ENERGISING ARF

The meeting of foreign ministers dealing with North Korea's nuclear disarmament seemed to energize ARF, which has been searching since its inception 15 years ago to take a more activist approach to political and security issues in the region.

"What we're excited about (is) because security there means security for the East Asian region, and it means security for us as well," New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters told reporters during a break in the forum. "That's just one less perilous risk that the world will have to take in the future."

A multinational mechanism for cooperating on disasters and pandemics would mark a big step forward for ARF, from talking about issues on the sidelines to doing something about them.

But It also raises sensitivities in a region that has long been a field for big power rivalries dating back to colonial times and where there are any number of border disputes and overlapping territorial claims.

The ARF declaration backed ASEAN's call on Myanmar to free all political prisoners, including Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, and adopt democratic reforms.

The forum also recognized that Myanmar has had to address many and complex challenges and "reaffirmed their commitment to remain constructively engaged with Myanmar as part of building the ASEAN community."

"We're not here because it's a talk-shop," New Zealand's Peters said. "We're here because (ARF's) got a serious purpose and a whole range of issues, whether it's transnational crime, terrorism, maritime security ... and we've got some responsible things to do in the interest of the people's security in the individual countries in the region."

(Additional reporting by Neil Chatterjee, Manny Mogato and Melanie Lee; Editing by Alex Richardson)