Burma agrees to skip ASEAN chairmanship

Military-ruled Burma agreed today to forgo its scheduled chairmanship of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) next year to avoid a damaging Western boycott of the group’s meetings, diplomats said.

The US and European Union had demanded that Burma either move toward democracy and release pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi or forfeit its turn at the rotating chairmanship of ASEAN in late 2006.