BALI, Indonesia: Southeast Asian ministers put the finishing touches yesterday to an action plan to transform the region into a giant free-trade zone that will be the centrepiece of this week's annual summit of leaders.

"We've dotted the i's and crossed the t's for our leaders," Singapore Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo said after a meeting of trade ministers from the 10 member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

Security was tight on Indonesia's tropical island of Bali, where bomb attacks by Islamic militants killed 202 people in October last year.

Troops have been deployed and 13 naval vessels are offshore to protect ASEAN leaders, together with those from China, Japan and South Korea (ASEAN plus 3), when they meet today and tomorrow to agree on integrating trade.

ASEAN Secretary-General Ong Keng Yong said the agreement is "a strategic economic initiative aimed at bolstering the position of Southeast Asia as a competitive place to do business."

Ong said on Sunday the target date for a free-trade area could be brought forward. Discussion among the leaders would consider accelerating the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in a region with 500 million people and annual trade worth US$720 billion.

The officials' focus is nurturing the economic growth of a region rocked in the past few years by a financial crisis, terror attacks and the SARS virus.

A draft of the final communique to be issued by the leaders, dubbed the Bali Concord II, underscored the thrust to accelerate economic integration. Greater progress looked likely with the group's stamp of approval for an action plan for an ASEAN Economic Community, which is the brainchild of wealthier members such as Singapore and has a goal of a huge free-trade zone by 2020.

Agencies via Xinhua

(China Daily 10/07/2003 page1)