Australian Prime Minister John Howard today said Australia would not beg for a place at the inaugral East Asia Summit, after failing to gain visiting Malaysian leader Abdullah Ahmad Badawi's backing for an invite.

Howard persuaded Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to support Australia's push for a summit spot earlier this week but did not have the same success with Abdullah when the pair met in Canberra on Thursday.

Howard insisted he had not expected Abdullah to issue an invitation at the meeting, saying the summit's make up was still being considered by Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) foreign ministers.

"Its a matter for Asean to decide, we'd be very happy to participate but we are not knocking on doors begging admission, we dont need to do that," Howard told commercial radio. "Australia is a strong, respected, involved country in the region and that will be the case whether or not were at this summit."

Abdullah stopped short of backing Australia's inclusion Thursday and Malaysian Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak last month specifically called for Australia, New Zealand and India to be left out.

The summit is scheduled to be held in Kuala Lumpur in December.

A major player

It is aimed at building cooperation between the 10-member Asean bloc and Japan, South Korea and China as part of a move towards an EU-style East Asian Community.

Australian and New Zealand last month launched talks aimed at sealing a free trade pact with Asean.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the talks would continue regardless of whether Australia attended the summit, denying that exclusion would hamper Canberra's efforts to engage in the region.

"We are a very major player in the region," Downer told ABC radio. "I think everybody knows of the enormous role Australia plays in the region and the very high degree of interaction there is and the close political relations we now have with countries in the region including Malaysia.

"We'd like to participate in the East Asian summit if were asked to do so we have of course made that clear."

Downer reiterated Canberra's unwillingness to sign Asean's Treaty of Amity and cooperation, seen as a major impediment to Australia's chances of attending the summit.

He said the non-aggression pact was designed for non-aligned countries and Australia was "unashamedly" allied with the United States. He said it also treated non-Asean countries as "second-class nations", a situation Canberra was not prepared to accept.