Health ministers from 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) agreed at their two-day meeting in Manila, the Philippines, that the industrial chemical melamine, which was found in Chinese dairy products, “should not be added deliberately in food, even at the minutest amount,” Philippine Health Secretary Francisco Duque III was quoted by the Associated Press (AP) as saying.

The ministers strongly condemned “unscrupulous business practice and cover-up” in the scandal surrounding melamine-laced milk, and agreed that ASEAN members should strengthen mechanisms for consultation and exchange of information to prevent health hazards, Mr Duque said.

A draft of a joint statement issued on October 10 also expressed the ministers' concerns over the spread of infectious diseases such as AIDS and bird flu that “continue to threaten the lives of people in the region... with socio-economic consequences that pose a formidable challenge to ASEAN community-building”.

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