JAKARTA, Dec 15, SPA--Southeast Asian foreignministers met on Monday to implement a charter setting up abloc of half a billion people, but hopes of building a EuropeanUnion-style community may be blown off course by the globaleconomic crisis, Reuters reported. Often dismissed as a talking shop, the 10 memberAssociation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) signed thecharter in November 2007 with the aim of creating aneconomically, socially and politically integrated bloc by 2015. But even without the impact of the credit crunch, politicalturbulence in some of the eclectic grouping of nations rangingfrom highly developed Singapore to Laos, a poor landlockedcommunist state, makes the task look increasingly tough. Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo said there was adanger that the region could face protectionist pressures asthe global economic crisis deepens. "It's true in nature that all countries now find thatprotectionist tendency is coming stronger because of thecrisis, but that's all the more important to think of the tradeagenda in the process to counter this protectionist force,"said Yeo. Analysts said the charter faced too many obstacles rightnow in the diverse region of 560 million people. "For the time being, it will be better to postpone thediscussion and preparation towards economic integration,because now the more important thing is how they can supportone another to be able to come out of this crisis with minimumdamage," said Enrico Tanuwidjaja, an economist at OCBC Bank inSingapore. Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said a meetingof finance ministers should be held by January to discuss theChiang Mai Initiative, a network of bilateral currency swapsworth $118 billion between ASEAN and its dialogue partnersChina, Japan and South Korea. The idea is that a country facing a short-term liquidityshortage can borrow reserves from partners to absorb any heavyselling pressure on its currency without having to resort todamaging devaluations, as some did in the crisis a decade ago. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia,Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. NEW SUMMIT SLATED FOR FEBRUARY While the EU and organisations such as NAFTA (NorthAmerican Free Trade Agreement) have created major tradingblocs, ASEAN has lagged behind. Marking an inauspicious start, the ASEAN charter wassupposed to be unveiled at a summit in the northern Thai cityof Chiang Mai this month, but a heightening of a three-yearpolitical crisis in Bangkok meant that Indonesia stepped in tohost a meeting of foreign ministers. A new summit could be held in Thailand, the group's chair,between Feb 24-26, ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan said,although there appears to be no swift end in sight to the Thaipolitical crisis, pitting Bangkok's royal and military elitesagainst supports of ousted and exiled leader ThaksinShinawatra. On Monday, at least 200 supporters of Thaksin blockedaccess to Thailand's parliament and threw bricks at cars ofsome MPs after opposition leader Abhisit Vejjajiva won a thinmajority in a vote to become prime minister. The ASEANcharter was agreed last year and then gradually ratified bymembers, with Indonesia the last to ratify it in October. --SPA www.spa.gov.sa/616440