Cha-am, Thailand - The ten members of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Friday signed a free trade agreement with Australia and New Zealand, demonstrating the region's commitment to open markets at a time of growing protectionism in the West.

The free trade agreement (FTA), which will lower tariffs over a 12-year period, is deemed one of the most comprehensive yet signed by the ASEAN, Australia and New Zealand, covering trade in goods and services.

Bangkok - Bangkok's deputy police chief said Friday that 21 leaders of the royalist Yellow Shirts would be charged with unlawful gathering, leading to the seizure of Government House last October during a series of protests aimed agains the then government.

Metropolitan police Major General Amnuay Nimmano said the leaders of the yellow-shirted People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) - allies of the current government - would also be charged with obstructing the work of the authorities.

Cha-am, Thailand - Myanmar's junta has tentatively offered to screen Rohingya refugees for repatriation on the condition that they admit they are of Bengali descent and have fixed addresses in Myanmar, the Thai foreign minister said Friday.

"If they can prove they are from Bangladesh and lived in Myanmar, then they are ready to take back these people," Kasit Piromya said.

Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win made the proposal at an informal dinner of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Thursday night in Cha-am, a beach resort 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok.

Hong Kong  - A talk by fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in Hong Kong next week was still scheduled to go ahead Friday despite calls for his extradition to Thailand.

The controversial former premier is due to give a talk at Hong Kong's Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC) on Monday at a luncheon attended by more than 100 people who have paid around 20 US dollars for their tickets.

The plans reportedly annoyed his successor Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who threatened to lobby mainland China for Thaksin's extradition. The business-tycoon-turned-politician was handed a jail sentence last year for breaching corruption rules while in office.

Cha-am, Thailand  - Greenpeace activists on Friday urged South-East Asian leaders to put global warming on the agenda of a summit being held this weekend in Thailand when discussing the region's efforts to deal with the global economic crisis.

Activists unfurled a banner reading, "Ten Nations - One Vision, Climate Action Now," on the back of a billboard across the street from the hotel in Cha-am, 130 kilometres south-west of Bangkok, where the 14th summit of the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is being held.

Bangkok - Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva said Thursday he might ask China to extradite fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The controversial former premier is scheduled to give a speech in Hong Kong Monday. He has kept clear of Thailand after being given a jail sentence last year for breaching corruption rules when his wife successfully bid for government land while he was in office.

Thaksin, who won all three general elections he fought since forming his own political party a decade ago, remains deeply distrusted by much of the military, as well urban elites and the palace.