East Asian leaders focus on free trade, emissions

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SINGAPORE, Nov 21 (Reuters): Asian leaders were meeting in Singapore today to discuss free trade, financial market stability and cutting greenhouse gases, after a Southeast Asian summit overshadowed by controversy over Myanmar.
The Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), which signed a landmark charter yesterday aiming for economic integration, is meeting leaders from Japan, China, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand in the annual "ASEAN+6" meeting.
ASEAN is negotiating free trade with all of them, with a China-ASEAN deal seen as the most advanced and possible by 2010.
An agreement with India has stalled over agricultural tariffs, and potential deals with the United States and EU are off since both have sanctions on Myanmar.
"The agreement with China is the most advanced and nearing completion," said Rodolfo Severino, visiting research fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies and Secretary-General of ASEAN from 1998-2002. "The one with Australia and New Zealand is one of the most beneficial, since it includes technical assistance."
Greenhouse gas emissions will be a hot topic.
Japan will present a proposal to cut emissions and give incentives to developing nation polluters such as China, a move analysts say could complement the United Nations Kyoto Protocol on climate change.
Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda plans to pledge more than $1.8 billion in loans for environmental projects in Asia during the meeting, Japanese media have said, to finance projects such as sewage disposal and scrubbing of sulphur dioxide from power plant chimneys.