SINGAPORE Former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas has called for the ASEAN plus three forum to be extended to take in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

In an address to a regional outlook seminar here, Alatas said an extended forum should focus on economic, social and technical cooperation.

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is already working on a regional free trade zone with Australia and New Zealand, aiming to merge the 10-nation ASEAN Free Trade Area with the Australasian closer economic relations pact.

In his address Friday night, Alatas said the economic interdependence and cooperation between ASEAN and its current plus-three partners -- Japan, China and South Korea -- were now "facts of life."

The tie-up could be enhanced if it was developed into an institutional framework that would "help member countries meet the challenges of globalization."

But the influential ASEAN figure and Indonesian foreign policy chief under presidents Suharto and B.J. Habibie said the link should be limited to economic and social cooperation.

"It would not be appropriate to venture into cooperation on political and security issues at the moment," he said because of substantive differences in policy among East and Southeast Asian countries.

But the arrangement "will not fail to contribute to peace and stability in this region."

In due course, he said, ASEAN should consider the informal participation of New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong and Taiwan in line with its economic principles, AFP reported.

ASEAN groups Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.