SINGAPORE: Southeast Asian foreign ministers called for action on Monday to reduce soaring commodity prices and urged Myanmar’s junta to immediately release democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

The ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) — a region of more than 500 million people including some of the world’s poorest — said soaring food and fuel prices pose a “serious challenge to our peoples’ welfare as well as our countries’ continued economic development.” The call came at the end of annual talks between foreign ministers in Singapore which covered a multitude of issues concerning the bloc.

“On the issue of food security, we affirmed that access to adequate and reliable supply of staples, and stable prices were fundamental to the region’s economic and social well-being,” they said in a joint communique.

“We encouraged all countries to do away with price-distorting export subsidies and other protectionist policies, and to provide market access to competitive food exports.” The ministers also said they expected all 10 member states to ratify an EU-style charter — envisaging the creation of an EU-type free trade zone by 2015 — before a full regional summit in Bangkok in December.

Surging food prices, particularly key local staples such as rice and soy beans, and the spectacular spike in global oil prices has hit growth across the region and forced countries to raise interest rates to stem inflation.

Asean states such as Indonesia and Malaysia have had to hike subsidised fuel prices in recent months as the cost of crude passed $140 a barrel, leading to street protests and social unrest.

On rogue member Myanmar, the ministers “took note” of a referendum which passed a new constitution in May in the aftermath of killer Cyclone Nargis, a vote widely condemned as a sham to perpetuate the military’s grip on power.

They urged the junta to take “bolder steps” to hold free and fair elections by 2010 and release “all political detainees, including Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, to pave the way for meaningful dialogue.” But the communique dropped the language of an earlier chairman’s statement which said the ministers were “deeply disappointed” by the junta’s recent extension of Aung San Suu Kyi’s house arrest by a year. Aung San Suu Kyi has spent most of the past 18 years under house arrest.

The junta meanwhile ratified the new Asean charter, binding it to ideals of democracy and human rights. Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win spoke of the junta’s desire to create a “caring and sharing community.” Analysts were sceptical about the regime’s intentions of observing the treaty, which contains no provisions for punishing rights violators.

The bloc has been criticised for its policy of “constructive engagement” toward Myanmar’s secretive junta, which is under European Union and United States sanctions over its long record of human rights abuses.

Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

On Thursday the 27-nation Asean Regional Forum (ARF), Asia’s top security and political grouping which includes the United States, China and the European Union, is due to meet.

A highlight is expected to be an unprecedented meeting between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and North Korean Foreign Minister Pak Ui-Chun at an informal gathering of representatives of the six countries negotiating Pyongyang’s denuclearisation. ASEAN ministers, who also discussed climate change, said they had received assurances that Thailand and Cambodia would show “utmost restraint” to avoid armed conflict over a disputed part of the border amid a troop build-up on both sides.—AFP