An Asia-Europe forum accepted Myanmar and 12 other new members on Thursday ahead of a summit strained by Yangon’s human rights record and detention of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Some diplomats hope differences over Myanmar can be set aside when the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) begins on Friday after a hard-won compromise on the military ruled country’s attendance.

But as leaders gathered in Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, the European Union said it would be tightening sanctions against Myanmar next week because the regime had not released Nobel peace laureate Suu Kyi.

Earlier, at a lavish ceremony at a five-star Hanoi hotel, the ASEM formally inducted 10 more European members and three from Asia, including Myanmar, into the informal grouping both regions see as a way to promote trade and security.

“With this, ASEM emerges as a political economic entity fully capable of playing an important role in world peace, security and development,” Vietnam’s Prime Minister Phan Van Khai said in an address from a stage built over the hotel swimming pool.

Before he spoke, flags of the new members were raised to music from a military band as leaders including French President Jacques Chirac and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao looked on.

After Thursday’s ceremony, ASEM comprises 39 members: 25 from Europe, 13 from Asia and the European Commission. Together, ASEM members represent
about three billion people and about 60 percent of world trade. It is one of the few major groupings that does not include the United States.

The Hanoi summit is ASEM’s fifth biennial gathering and North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, greater cooperation in the fight against terrorism and trade will be key themes, but Myanmar – the former Burma – is likely to dominate.

Suu Kyi has spent more than half of the past 15 years under house arrest. Her National League for Democracy won elections by a landslide in 1990 but the military ignored the result and locked up many of her supporters.

After months of bickering nearly scuttled the gathering Yangon agreed to send minister-level officials to Hanoi instead of Prime Minister Khin Nyunt. Labour Minister Tin Winn, a senior official in Khin Nyunt’s office, is leading the delegation.

The EU said in a statement issued in Europe it would tighten sanctions against Myanmar next week after it failed to release Suu Kyi and recognise her party, as demanded by the EU.

“Today, Oct. 7, these conditions have not been met. As a result the EU will, at a meeting on Oct. 11, impose stricter sanctions on the regime in Myanmar,” Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot said in the statement.

The Netherlands holds the rotating presidency of the 25-member-state EU. Bot is attending the Hanoi meeting.

The EU will expand a visa ban, prohibit EU-registered countries from financing state-owned companies in Myanmar and vote against international organisations extending it loans.

The EU is also to draw up proposals to curb the export of teak from Myanmar.

“STATE TERRORISTS”

Suu Kyi’s fellow Nobel prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu accused world leaders of ignoring oppression in Myanmar and her plight.

“The words of protest at her detention from world leaders ring hollow when they do not translate into action,” the South African anti-apartheid icon wrote in the International Herald Tribune newspaper on Thursday.

“There in Hanoi, state terrorists from Myanmar will sit and dine with you leaders,” Tutu wrote.

British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott said in a statement he would press concerns about what he called the unacceptable situation in Myanmar and its continued lack of progress towards democracy.

Despite the harsh language used by the EU to pressure Myanmar to free Suu Kyi, a leaked draft of the ASEM chairman’s statement to be issued on Saturday used much more diplomatic words.

Japan’s Kyodo news agency, citing the draft, said in a report late on Wednesday the EU would welcome the early lifting of restrictions on Suu Kyi and her party and called on Myanmar to include all political groups in its declared national reconciliation process.

One diplomat in Hanoi told Reuters that senior officials of the ASEM delegations would discuss over dinner on Thursday whether or not to specifically name Suu Kyi and her party in the chairman’s final statement.