Malaysia criticised European countries today for cancelling two meetings with Asian partners because of a rift over the attendance of military-ruled Burma.

"Just because they are not satisfied with one country it should not then cause the meetings to be abandoned. They should not try to impose conditions, it's not productive," Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar told a news conference.

A finance ministers' gathering next month of the Asia-Europe Meeting group in Brussels and a September meeting of Asem economy ministers in Rotterdam have been cancelled, casting doubt over an October summit.

The July 5 meeting of Asem finance ministers would have been the first between the two regions since the EU expanded from 15 to 25 nations last month.

Tiff over military junta

Burma's partners in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations had insisted that if the EU wanted to bring along its 10 new states, Burma's military junta be represented at the Brussels talks along with the two other most recent additions to Asean, Cambodia and Laos.

But the EU has a visa ban in place against the Burma regime, which EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten said had overseen a "calamitous" deterioration in the life of its deeply impoverished people and had failed to deliver on promises of political reform.

Syed Hamid said there was much to be gained through the meetings and "even if we disagree we should not impose conditions."

The cancellation of the two ministerial encounters raises major doubts over whether the October summit in the Vietnamese capital can go ahead if Asean sticks to its stance.

The dispute has sharpened as the EU prepares to send its foreign affairs chief, Javier Solana, to represent it at regular security talks of the Asean Regional Forum in Jakarta on June 30-July 2.

Solana denied the EU stand would leave him isolated at the talks in the Indonesian capital.

"We will not feel embarrassed at all. I think the embarrassment should be for Burma," he said, using Myanmar's former name.

Asem groups the EU, seven members of the 10-nation Asean, plus China, Japan and South Korea. - AFP