Phuket, Thailand  - Asia's main security forum opened Thursday in Phuket with North Korea's nuclear weapons programme and Myanmar's ongoing political instability high on the agenda.

The Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum - which has drawn 26 foreign ministers, including US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, to Thailand's Phuket island - was expected to issue tough statements on those countries, considered Asia's two bad boys.

Clinton met Wednesday with the foreign ministers from the other countries involved in six-nation talks aimed at ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programme. The only country not to participate was North Korea itself, which is a member of the forum but refused to send its foreign minister to the annual meeting.

"I think we've laid the groundwork for future cooperation on urgent issues from North Korea and Burma to the threat of terrorism and scourge of human trafficking," Clinton said before entering the closed-door meeting in Phuket, 600 kilometres south of Bangkok.

At a Wednesday press conference Clinton called for the "irreversible denuclearization" of North Korea.

"All the foreign ministers agreed that a complete and irreversible denuclearization is the only viable path for North Korea," Clinton said.

The forum was expected to issue a strong statement of support for a recent UN Security Council resolution that imposed stricter economic sanctions and an arms embargo on North Korea to pressure the pariah state to end its nuclear programme, deemed one of the main threats to security in Asia.

The United States and its allies have offered economic incentives to Pyongyang in return for ending its nuclear ambitions.

"If they will agree to irreversible denuclearization, then the US as well as our partners will move forward on a programme of incentives and opportunities, including normalizing relations, that will give the people of North Korea a better future," Clinton said.

Pyongyang has appointed an ambassador to attend Thursday's event.

The forum consists of ASEAN's 10 members as well as Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, the European Union, India, Japan, North and South Korea, Mongolia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua Guinea, Russia, Sri Lanka, East Timor and the United States.

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

The other main security threat to the region remains political insecurity in Myanmar, also known as Burma, and its refusal to implement political reforms.

"ASEAN and the ASEAN countries are moving in the right direction," Clinton said. "Burma is moving in the opposite direction. We can only hope that there will be progress is persuading the Burmese leadership to change direction." (dpa)