The 90-minute Asean-US summit is scheduled for November 15 at Singapore's Shangri-La Hotel and will be co-chaired by US President Barack Obama and Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, the current ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations) Chairman, Boosara Kanchanalai, Director of Division 4 of Department of ASEAN Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, told a press briefing. 

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) leaders' meeting will be held on November 14-15 in Singapore. 

It is expected that non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, disaster management, A(H1N1) flu influenza prevention, climate change, anti-terrorism will be discussed at the Singapore-proposed summit, she said. 

"It's not a permanent meeting but was temporarily decided short time ago, " the director said. "Leaders of ten ASEAN member countries have confirmed to join the meeting." 

Details of the agenda and the joint statement will be worked out later this week by the Philippines, the coordinator for the Asean-US meeting, Thailand's Nation news network earlier said. 

The ASEAN-US Summit was first planned in September 2007 in Singapore but then-president George W Bush called it off at the last minute due to his tight schedule at home. Bush met ASEAN leaders three times during his tenure -- in October 2002 in Los Cabos, Mexico; in December 2005 in Busan, South Korea; and in September 2007, in Sydney. But these occasions were part of the APEC leaders' meetings, and as a result only seven ASEAN members could attend. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are not members of APEC. 

The US secretary of state said she and US President Obama believed that Southeast Asia is vital to global progress, peace and prosperity. "Southeast Asia and ASEAN are critically important to our future," she added. 

Also at the summit, ASEAN and the United States are expected to discuss an ASEAN-US Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which was proposed by Senator Richard Lugar last month. He said an FTA should be part of a comprehensive strategy towards ASEAN. 

ASEAN-US trade increased from US$161 billion in 2006 to more than US$178 billion in 2008. US investment in ASEAN grew from US$3.4 billion in 2006 to US$6.3 billion in 2007. The region is the sixth largest export market of the United States.