US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to fly to Thailand for a regional security conference expected to focus on the North Korean nuclear threat, Myanmar's rights record and terrorism.

Clinton will travel from New Delhi to Bangkok to meet Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, officials said, before heading on Wednesday to the island of Phuket for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Regional Forum (ARF).

US officials said a key thrust of her debut appearance at the ARF will be how to crank up the pressure on North Korea to return to multilateral nuclear disarmament talks after its missile and nuclear weapons tests.

They said Clinton will meet one-on-one with her counterparts from South Korea, China, Japan and Russia — which along with the United States were North Korea's partners in six years of disarmament negotiations.

North Korea bolted the talks after the United Nations censured its long-range missile test in April. The showdown with the international community took another turn for the worse when it staged a nuclear test in May.

Pyongyang's foreign minister has declined to attend the security forum, instead sending a roving ambassador to the grouping of 27 nations including the United States and European Union.

The US State Department has been coy on whether Clinton would meet any North Korean delegates in Phuket.

The forum will also face the perennial challenge of Myanmar, which has sparked international outrage by putting pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi on trial over an incident in which an American man swam to her lakeside house.

Myanmar, Asean's most troublesome member since joining the bloc in 1997, showed its defiance earlier this month by refusing to allow UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to visit the opposition leader when he visited the country.

Clinton is also expected to discuss the region's economy and joint action on tackling swine flu, and will hold an unprecedented meeting with counterparts from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia to discuss health and environmental issues concerning the Mekong river.

ARF will also tackle terrorism after deadly suicide blasts on Friday at two hotels in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, a key Asean state that Clinton visited in February on her first overseas tour as chief diplomat.

During her five-day visit to New Delhi and Mumbai, Clinton said she had reassured her hosts that President Barack Obama would not only maintain, but deepen a "strategic partnership" launched under his predecessor George W. Bush.

Deals were struck paving the way for billions of dollars in exports of civilian nuclear reactors and military hardware to India, but differences of opinion remain between New Delhi and Washington over climate change.

AFP

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