The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ministers had been scheduled to meet with their European colleagues in Rotterdam on Friday and Saturday as part of the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) dialogue process.

However, the host government refused to issue a visa for Myanmar Economic Minister Soe Tha, effectively barring him from attending the meeting.

"The ASEAN ministers' decision not to attend the ASEM Economic Ministers' Meeting held in Rotterdam was made on a matter of principle," Singapore's foreign ministry said in a reply to media queries issued late Friday.

It said however that the meeting would proceed on the officials' level.

"Singapore's position is that all members of international fora, such as the Asia-Europe Meeting, should be treated equally.

"If an EU member country has a bilateral problem with an ASEAN country, this should not translate into unequal treatment in the multilateral context," the ministry said.

The Netherlands' move was in line with the European Union's common position on the military-ruled Southeast Asian nation.

The EU bars top Myanmar leaders and senior military officers from travelling to Europe as part of sanctions to pressure the ruling generals to release democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi and implement democratic reforms.

Japan made an unusual move into the politically sensitive issue on Thursday when it questioned the EU's attitude towards Myanmar, according to a Japanese official.

"The EU side seems to have mixed up bilateral and multilateral issues a bit," Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura was quoted as telling Southeast Asian counterparts in a meeting on the sidelines of the UN summit in New York.

"Since I plan to meet EU officials during my stay in New York, I will bring this issue up there," Machimura was quoted as saying by the Japanese official.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

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