Southeast Asian leaders including a tearful Indonesian president paid tribute Tuesday to one of their most forceful and outspoken colleagues, veteran Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, at his farewell summit.

Asia's longest-serving elected leader steps down as premier on Oct 31 after 22 years in power.

Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri, host of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit, choked back tears as she delivered a tribute to Mahathir and presented a memento - a photograph of Asean leaders signed by all of them.

"The mark of his statesmanship has been implanted deep in our consciousness. The reach of his mind is so far and wide," she said, hailing Mahathir as a "steadfast friend and respected colleague".

"He always has strong and informed views and never hesitated to say the unpleasant things. There is no way of counting the things he did for Asean. Dr Mahathir may leave office but he will never abandon involvement with Asean," Megawati said.

Mahathir, 77, said Asean had proved its relevance since its founding in 1967. "How else can we explain the wilingness of the countries of Northeast Asia and South Asia to hold dialogues with us?"

The leaders of China, Japan, South Korea and India are attending the two-day summit on the resort island of Bali.

A regional community

Mahathir said Asean must not "rest on our laurels" but address challenges by transforming the grouping into an Asean community akin to the European Union.

Southeast Asia must also deepen relations with East Asia, he said, developing a constant theme of his foreign policy over the years. "An East Asian Community, with Asean at its core, is inevitable."

Asean secretary-general Ong Keng Yong has said the region would lose a "strong, colorful personality" when Mahathir steps down.

"His legacy is his forthright analysis of situations, calling a spade a spade and always coming up with bold ideas. He speaks his mind and he has been proven right on many occasions," Ong told AFP earlier.

"The feeling in Asean is that a strong colourful personality like Dr Mahathir and his style will be missed."

With the exception of Brunei's Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah who succeeded his father in 1967, Mahathir is the longest serving leader in the grouping.

Old guard

He is the last of Asean's old guard, who included Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines, Indonesia's Suharto and Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew. Marcos was driven into exile in the US and died in 1989 and Suharto stepped down under popular pressure in 1998.

Singapore's founding father Lee has become a senior minister since handing over the premiership to Goh Chok Tong in 1990.

Mahathir will hand over to his deputy Abdullah Ahmad Badawi after hosting the Organisation of the Islamic Conference summit in Kuala Lumpur and going on to Bangkok for his international swansong at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.

The doctor-turned-politician has been a trenchant critic of the West. He ignored western pressure and let military-ruled Burma into the Asean fold during Malaysia's chairmanship in 1997.

Mahathir has, however, made clear his unhappiness with the generals' latest crackdown. He told AFP in July that Burma might one day have to be expelled from Asean but only as a last resort. - AFP