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The call was made after Surin attended a transfer of office ceremony at the ASEAN Secretariat, during which Singapore's Director General of ASEAN Jacky Foo delivered the instruments of ratification of the ASEAN Charter from the Singaporean government.

Singapore is the first ASEAN country to ratify the Charter, which was signed during the 13th ASEAN Summit in Singapore in November.

''I will carry the same appeal for those who have no complication in their Constitution process, please do it as soon as possible,'' Surin told a press conference.

In Singapore, all ASEAN countries committed to try to bring the charter into force by the time of the next ASEAN Summit in Bangkok.

The ASEAN leaders, according to Surin, ''want to do it at the place when the Bangkok ASEAN Declaration was signed by the five senior statesmen back in 1967. They want to repeat that gathering, this time there will be 10 rather than five (signers).''

The ratification may be shadowed by the issue of Myanmar as Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said in November that her government will not ratify the charter if Myanmar's junta does not release opposition leader and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Still, Surin expressed belief all the ASEAN members will ratify the charter by the next ASEAN Summit, adding he will travel to the group's members to assure them.

He said that compared to the past ASEAN is now more dynamic and has become ''a bit more concerned, a bit more worried and a bit more open about expressing their concerns and their worries about our member states in the family,'' including Burma.

ASEAN, he added, will not interfere in the internal affairs of Myanmar, but will be an ''active standby'' in dealing with the issue by consulting, exploring among themselves, trying to find out what they can do and contribute to reconciliation in Burma.

''That's what the member states can do, will do and this is again a reflection of our concerns, of our desire to help and of our wish that Myanmar (Burma) as a member state can get over its own internal problems as soon as possible,'' he said.

The ASEAN Charter pledges the commitment of ASEAN to promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people in the region, but retains the group's principle of noninterference in the domestic affairs of member states, which has been blamed for making ASEAN helpless in the face of political conflicts in the region.

Surin, 57, who took the ASEAN helm from Singapore's Ong Keng Yong for a five-year term, is a Harvard-educated parliamentarian and a Muslim who served as foreign minister of Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country that shares a long stretch of border with Burma, from 1997 to 2001.

As foreign minister, Surin initiated the policy of ''flexible engagement'' to deal with Burma after ASEAN accepted Myanmar into the group in 1997 amid condemnation from many countries about Myanmar's abysmal human rights situation and military rule.

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.//Kyodo News - January 07, 2008