Myanmar had asked to defer its 2006 chairmanship of the 10-nation group so it could focus on its "democratisation process", ASEAN foreign ministers announced during their talks in the Lao capital Vientiane.

The decision was immediately welcomed by the European Union, which with the United States had threatened to boycott ASEAN meetings should Myanmar have taken the helm.

The row had also divided ASEAN, with its older members aware that Myanmar's chairmanship was a potential embarrassment and risked the group's international marginalisation.

Tuesday's decision "goes at least in the direction the European Union wanted," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Brussels.

Myanmar decided to relinquish its turn "because it would want to focus its attention on the ongoing national reconciliation and democratisation process," Lao Foreign Minister Somsavat Lengsavat said, reading an ASEAN statement.

The process has been dismissed internationally as a farce as it does not include the main opposition National League for Democracy headed by detained democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

"We have agreed that once Myanmar is ready to take its turn to be the chair, it can do so," Somsavat said. The Philippines stepped into Myanmar's place, with the position rotated alphabetically.

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

The Myanmar issue had for months overshadowed the ASEAN foreign ministers' agenda for the Laos meeting. Also up for discussion were combating terror, development and disaster preparedness after December's tsunami.

The ministers will be joined later in the week by dialogue partners, including Europe and the United States, in the 24-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF).

The security forum is expected to adopt measures to boost the region's defences against attacks.

Condoleezza Rice has decided not to attend -- the first US secretary of state to skip the meeting since the ARF was formed in 1994 -- reportedly because of the row over Myanmar.

Yangon's military rulers, who rejected a 1990 election that would have expelled them in favour of Aung San Suu Kyi's party, have come under repeated international criticism.

In a sign of continued defiance, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's envoy to Myanmar reported that Foreign Minister Nyan Win said he was "too busy" to meet in Vientiane Tuesday.

The ASEAN foreign ministers were to wrap up their talks Tuesday after signing an agreement to establish an ASEAN Development Fund aimed at narrowing the economic gap within member states and between ASEAN and other regions.

Each country is to contribute an initial one million dollars to the fund, ASEAN documents said.

Following December's tsunamis the ministers also signed an agreement that would help develop procedures to respond quickly and collectively to natural disasters.

"It is a sincere effort by ASEAN to show that everyone is willing to share the burden of any emergency that arises in the region," said Marty Natalegawa, spokesman of the foreign ministry in Indonesia which was hardest hit by the tsunami that killed about 217,000 people around the Indian Ocean.

The ministers also reviewed progress toward an ASEAN Charter which ultimately would transform the group, often accused of being a mere talking shop, into a treaty-based organisation whose decisions are legally binding.

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