BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN - ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) foreign ministers from the United States, China and 20 other nations meet in Brunei on Wednesday for the only security gathering in the volatile Asia-Pacific Region.

The meeting is the first since September 11 and the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan to hunt down al Qaeda militants blamed for those attacks.

The fight against terrorism tops the agenda but there will be intensive diplomatic discussions with North Korea to reduce tension on the Korean peninsula during the meeting.

The ARF dialogue was founded in 1994 by the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The grouping meets under a cloud of criticism that it is a talking shop for foreign ministers, unsuited to tackling the new post-September 11 security environment involving threats from terrorism to nuclear war.

KEY ISSUES:

- The ASEAN ministers, keen to allay fears their countries are hotbeds of terror networks, will sign a joint declaration on counter-terrorism with U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell on Thursday.

- ARF foreign ministers will also discuss tensions on the Korean peninsula, the world's last Cold War standoff. North Korea is labelled by the United States as part of an "axis of evil", sponsoring terrorism and selling missiles. North Korea and the U.S.-allied South are technically still at war since 1950-53 hostilities ended without a peace treaty.

Powell held an ice-breaking meeting with the North's Foreign Minister Paek Nam-sun on Wednesday. Paek is also to hold talks with Japan's Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi, but is unlikely to meet with his counterpart from South Korea.

- Tensions between China and U.S.-allied Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a renegade province, are on the agenda.

- Ministers are seen urging nuclear-armed India and Pakistan to solve their dispute over Kashmir peacefully after the two nations stepped back from the brink of war last month. Pakistan is not a member of the ARF.

- The forum ends formally on Wednesday, but post-ministerial bilaterals will continue on Thursday.

ASEAN MEMBERS:

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

ARF MEMBERS:

- The 10 ASEAN members plus Australia, Canada, China, the 15-member European Union, India, Japan, Mongolia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Russia, South Korea, North Korea and the United States.