MANILA : Southeast Asian nations have moved a step closer to approving a historic charter on Monday after diplomats meeting in Manila broke a deadlock on creating a regional human rights body.

Foreign ministers from ASEAN's ten member countries have gathered in the Philippine capital to discuss issues including economic integration and security.

The 40th ASEAN Ministerial Meeting has opened in Manila by breaking new ground with foreign ministers approving the creation of a human rights commission in a draft charter for the grouping.

George Yeo, Singapore's Foreign Minister, said: "It was a very good meeting this morning. The spirit of cooperation was there and the determination to move forward. We've agreed to establish a human rights body."

The commission will handle cases of human rights violations against citizens of ASEAN member-countries.

Military-ruled Myanmar had initially blocked its inclusion in the charter, but later dropped objections to the plan.

Mr Yeo said: "Myanmar takes a positive attitude towards all these developments. At the minister's level, we have consensus."

The human rights commission is an integral part of the landmark charter that the ASEAN leaders will be signing in Singapore come November.

Analysts believe that with the establishment of the human rights commission it will make ASEAN one step closer in gaining more credibility in the international community.

But the foreign ministers left it to ASEAN leaders to decide whether they should continue to resolve conflicts via consensus or put them to a vote.

Mr Yeo said: "We've agreed that for the most important issues, they will be referred to the leaders, and the leaders as a committee of peers will decide on their own methods of coming to decisions. In other words, we will not bind the leaders to the way they make decisions."

The foreign ministers also adopted a five-year work plan to implement a ten-year-old anti-nuclear treaty.

In her keynote address, Philippine President Gloria Arroyo lauded Pyongyang's commitment to denuclearisation.

President Arroyo said: "We support a diplomatic and peaceful solution to the nuclear issue. I am sure I speak for all the ASEAN states in expressing that we are encouraged that the six-party aimed at resolving the Korean peninsula issue have resumed. We welcome the confirmed shutdown of the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and the return of UN inspectors to Pyongyang."

She also urged ASEAN to ratify several free trade deals as the region prepares to establish its own free trade zone by 2015.

President Arroyo said: "For ASEAN to become a true expanding union, it must continue to nurture its relations especially with key partners China, Japan, and South Korea. Deepening integration on this level would mean completing and eventually forging the individual free trade agreements ASEAN is currently working out with these plus-three countries."

The agreements with two of these plus-three countries, China and South Korea, are already in the final stages while the trade pact with Japan is still under negotiation. - CNA/ch