Myanmar, Laos May Be Excluded from ASEM Meeting

   BANGKOK (Nov. 5) XINHUA - Senior Asian and European 
officials,  unable to settle on new countries to join the 
Asia-Europe Meeting  (ASEM), have handed off the issue to 
their leaders to decide, Saroj  Chavanaviraj, permanent 
secretary of the Thai Foreign Ministry, said  here Tuesday.
   Saroj led the Thai delegation at a senior officials' 
meeting of ASEM  members last Thursday and Friday in 
Luxembourg.
   He was quoted today by local press as saying that the 
leaders, who are  to meet in London next April, would 
consider only countries which had  already applied for 
membership.
   That means Myanmar and Laos will be excluded from the 
meeting because  they have not yet officially applied, 
Saroj said.
   Myanmar and Laos became new members of the Association 
of Southeast  Asian Nations (ASEAN) in July, but that does 
not give them automatic  entry into the one-year-old ASEM 
Forum.
   ASEM includes ASEAN - without Myanmar and Laos - and the 
European  Union, plus China, Japan and South Korea.