Burma, Laos attend first ASEAN meeting as members

    KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 (Reuter) - Burma and Laos on 
Monday attended their first meeting of the Association of 
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a full member of the 
grouping.
   The countries will be formally admitted to ASEAN at a 
special ceremony on Wednesday, on the eve of ASEAN's annual 
foreign ministers' meeting.
   ASEAN presently groups Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the 
Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
   Burma's admission has been harshly criticised by the 
United States and other Western nations, who want Burma 
isolated for its military rulers' human rights record and 
crackdown on pro-democracy movement.
   ASEAN has maintained that its policy of "constructive 
engagement" was the best way of reforming Burma's military 
rulers.
   "As far as constructive engagement is concerned, we are 
practising it as of now," Malaysia's foreign ministry 
Secretary-General, Abdul Kadir Mohamad, told reporters at a 
meeting of ASEAN senior officials.
   Senior officials from ASEAN countries are meeting to 
prepare an agenda for the foreign ministers' conference on 
Thursday and Friday.
   Cambodia had also been expected to be admitted to the 
group at the ceremony but ASEAN postponed its membership 
after a bloody coup in which Second Prime Minister Hun Sen 
overthrew First Prime Minister Prince Norodom Ranariddh.
   Cambodia still has observer status.