Singapore  - The Singapore organizers of the upcoming annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit presented Wednesday their choice of attire for the traditional leaders' group photo.

"We broke with APEC tradition in some ways," said Koh Lin-Net, chair of the APEC 2009 organizing committee, as the outfit of the 21 world leaders is generally kept under wraps until the photo session.

"This time, we thought we'd go for something different," she said.

While the organizers revealed the design of the long-sleeved shirts for the male APEC leaders and the blouses for the female leaders, Koh said the men will allowed to choose which colour.

"We thought we would retain a little bit of secrecy," she said.

Male leaders, including US President Barack Obama, could choose from three colours - blue, red or green, while the females will don red attire.

The clothing is silk and linen and decorated with embroidery in the shape of a lotus flower, with three rings of petals representing the 21 APEC member economies.

The leaders' attire was inspired from Singapore's Peranakan culture, a unique blend of cultural heritages with Chinese, Indian and Malay elements, said local fashion designer Wykidd Song, who created the outfit.

"I see Peranakan culture as a hybrid of the different cultures we have in South-east Asia," he said, adding that it reflected Singapore's identity as a multi-racial and multi-cultural society.

APEC includes the 21 Pacific Rim countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Peru, Russia, United States and Vietnam. (dpa)