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| | Guardian Unlimited Guardian daily comment Hopes and fears of an Asian Union |
 | | Foreign ministers of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (Asean) meeting in Mactan in the Philippines failed to resolve a bitter row yesterday over whether to allow Burma's military regime to have the rotating chairmanship next year. |
 | | Regional analysts say this December's ground-breaking East Asia Summit in Kuala Lumpur could pave the way for the eventual creation of a permanent East Asian Community, the equivalent of the European Union or, in its initial stages at least, of the former European Economic Community. |
 | | It is a proposal that Asean's members - Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - join the economic giants China, Japan and South Korea, and possibly other countries, in a new and much more powerful regional organisation. |
| www.guardian.co.uk /worldbriefing/story/0,15205,1457343,00.html |
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