Vientiane: Southeast Asian leaders Tuesday wrapped up meetings in Laos where renewed embarrassment over military-ruled Myanmar threatened to overshadow the signing of a historic trade deal with China.

Myanmar re-emerged as the unpredictable bete noire of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by sending out mixed signals on its commitment to reform as the 10-member group met in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

Reports from Yangon that the ruling junta had extended the house arrest of democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi again cast a shadow over the annual summit, which has been dogged by controversy ever since Myanmar joined ASEAN in 1997.

Baffled Asian leaders, some of whom had only just praised Myanmar’s decision to release more than 9,000 prisoners, sought clear answers from the military-led regime but got none.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said he asked Prime Minister Soe Win about the status of Myanmar’s most famous opposition figure.

“He said he has to check,” Thaksin told reporters afterwards. “He didn’t have any details yet.”

Addressing the awkward fact that Myanmar, one of the world’s most unpopular regimes, will take over the chairmanship of ASEAN in 2006, Thaksin said there must be reform in the isolated country.

“Now they have started to release the prisoners, but not Aung San Suu Kyi yet. One year from now on, some things must be improved,” he said.

Indonesia would be concerned if the reports were true, foreign ministry spokesman Marty Natalegawa said. “Then probably that is a subject of consternation for Indonesia nationally,” he told reporters.

Another piece of unwelcome news in Vientiane was Australia resistance to calls to join a non-aggression pact with the organization even while seeking free-trade negotiations from next year.

Prime Minister John Howard has riled Australia’s neighbors with tough talk of possible pre-emptive strikes against terrorist bases overseas, widely interpreted to mean Indonesia, and ASEAN wants assurances about his intentions.

But Australia insists it is no threat. “There’s no question of attacking Asian nations. We are a threat to nobody,” Defence Minister Robert Hill said in Sydney Tuesday.

The failure to induce Myanmar to stop its rights abuses or Australia to sign its name on a piece of paper may expose ASEAN at its weakest and most toothless.

But ASEAN also showed itself at its most ambitious during the summit, signing agreements with China that could lead to the creation of the world’s largest trading bloc of nearly two billion people by the end of the decade.

The pacts inked late Monday include an agreement to liberalize tariff and non-tariff barriers on traded goods and one to set up a mechanism to resolve trade disputes.

China’s northeast Asian neighbors, and others in the region concerned about being left behind, also got in in the act.

Japan, ever wary of China’s growing influence, sealed a trade pact with ASEAN Tuesday, aiming at creating a tariff-free bloc by 2012. The two sides agreed to start talks next April.

Japan and ASEAN also settled on an anti-terror plan, pushing for cooperation in cutting funding for terror groups and strengthening immigration controls to stop militants crossing borders.

South Korea agreed with ASEAN to launch its own free-trade talks next year. ASEAN will also begin negotiating a free-trade pact with New Zealand next year.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Southeast Asian counterparts meanwhile signed a pact to establish a free-trade area with most of ASEAN by 2011.

ASEAN hopes this network of agreements will form the building blocks for a proposed powerful East Asia free-trade zone that could negotiate on a par with the United States and Europe.