SINGAPORE - Singapore has cancelled ASEAN's traditional night of skits and stage acts by ministers at the end of their annual talks, ASEAN Secretary-General Surin Pitsuwan said Tuesday.

He said he did not know why Singapore had decided to pull the plug on what he described as "one of the highlights" of the sometimes dull annual foreign ministerial meetings. "That's the privilege of the host," he said.

"It was the decision of the host not to (keep the tradition) but I agree it was one of the highlights."

The ASEAN chief said some of the ministers from the bloc's dialogue partners, which include the United States, Japan and Australia, had taken it "too seriously" in previous years.

"The point was to relax and bond," Surin said.

"I think some of the dialogue partners took their performances too seriously to the point where they felt uncomfortable... They kept their scripts secret and rehearsed sometimes in their bathrooms."

Singaporean officials refused to confirm that the gala dinner at the presidential palace on Wednesday would be a strictly formal event featuring professional entertainment but no ministerial performances.

They would not comment on their reasons for cancelling the annual behind-closed-doors bonding session, highlights of which invariably leaked to the media.

Australia's long-serving ex-foreign minister Alexander Downer was famous for his karaoke, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has performed classical piano and former Japanese envoy Taro Aso once impersonated Humphrey Bogart.

In Kuala Lumpur two years ago the 10 ASEAN ministers joined in chorus to sing the group's theme tune, a not-so-immortal number by Malaysia's then-foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar.

The United States, Australia and Canada specialised in reworking Western pop hits to make fun of regional tensions.

"When you're not so sweet, I call the Seventh Fleet. That's the American way!" former US secretary of state Madeleine Albright crooned at her Chinese counterpart one year, to the tune of Bob Hope's "Thanks for the Memories".

Serious matters up for discussion at the talks here this week include political prisoners in Myanmar, a military standoff between Thailand and Cambodia, soaring food prices and North Korea's nuclear programme.

ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. - AFP/vm