Asean stepped up its public condemnation of the Burmese military regime at its annual foreign ministers’ meeting in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, while admitting that the only path to reform may lie outside the bloc.

After two days of discussions, media reports from the Malaysian capital confirmed that Burmese Foreign Minister Nyan Win had shown at a closed briefing with his Asean partners that Burma had made no progress towards democracy.

A frustrated Asean late on Tuesday issued its most strongly-worded collective statement yet on Burma-albeit not as explicit as had been predicted-in calling for “tangible progress” in the country. In an apparent reference to the protracted house arrest in Rangoon of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, the statement said: “We [the ministers] reiterated our calls for the early release of those placed under detention and for effective dialogue with all parties concerned.”

Although the joint message on Burma was less critical than expected, commentators noted that it was far more explicit than that of the annual meeting in 2005 in Vientiane, when Asean announced that Burma would relinquish its right to the Asean chairmanship in 2006 “to focus its attention on the ongoing national reconciliation and democratization process.”

Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus spokesman Roshan Jason said this year’s message was much closer to the line taken by those calling for change in Burma, both in and outside the country. The National League for Democracy, Suu Kyi’s opposition party, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

More significant though were individual comments from Asean foreign ministers on Wednesday, most notably Thailand’s Kantathi Suphamongkhon, who told Reuters: “If there had been tangible progress [from Burma] going on, then there might not be a need to have…a [UN Security Council] meeting,” he said, referring to whether the Burma issue should be addressed by the council. “I think that Asean would probably have no objection to that,” he added.

Kantathi’s comments echoed those of the outgoing Asean chair, Malaysia, whose Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told AIPMC parliamentarians before this week’s meeting: “I am aware that the AIPMC has publicly supported this [UNSC] move, and of course it would be very difficult for Asean governments to ignore the views of their democratically elected legislators.”

He added: “Let me assure you that the views of the AIPMC have significant bearing in the decision making process of Asean with regard to the issue on Myanmar [Burma].”

Asean member the Philippines said when it was a non-permanent member of the UNSC last year that it would back the US-led position to bring a Burma resolution to the UNSC, though its council membership has now ended. Manila takes over the chairmanship of Asean in Burma’s place for one year starting on Friday.

Philippine congressman Mario Joyo Aguya, a member of AIPMC, noted that although Asean had collectively become more explicit on Burma, confusion had increased on the bloc’s actual position given the very strong individual statements from ministers.

“I’m not sure Asean is willing to call the [UN] Security Council to work with Asean to come up with a resolution of the problem,” he said.

He also warned against an exasperated Asean admitting failure on Burma: “Just saying there is nothing we can do, then what do we expect the international community to do?”

He added: “I think to resolve the problem of Burma requires a collective initiative and I think it’s not limited to Asean. I think it’s important for Asean to have a very concrete position.”

The issue is likely to continue at the Asean Regional Forum, which follows the Asean annual meeting on Thursday, as ministers meet with external partners to discuss mainly security. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is due to attend the meeting despite her current involvement in urgent Middle East talks, has already said that Burma will be a major talking point at the ARF meeting, along with North Korea and the Middle East crisis in Lebanon.