Cha-am, Thailand - Efforts to set up a human rights body for the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) got off to a bad start Saturday when Myanmar and Cambodia blocked civil society representatives from attending talks with the group's leaders.

The 14th ASEAN Summit being held in Cha-am, 130 kilometres from Bangkok, has been billed as the most "inclusive" meeting of the 42-year-old South-East Asian grouping to date.

The summit kicked off Saturday morning with a series of talks between ASEAN leaders and representatives of civil society, parliamentarians, youth organizations and the business community.

Phnom Penh - Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Friday postponed a hearing of the regime's former head of state after his controversial French lawyer failed to appear at court.

Khieu Samphan, 77, was in court to appeal an extension of his pre-trial detention, but judges adjourned the hearing until April 3 after it was revealed that international co-defence lawyer Jacques Verges was still in France.

Phnom Penh - Judges at Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal on Thursday postponed a hearing for the fallen regime's ailing former foreign minister after doctors declared him too ill to attend court.

Ieng Sary, 83, was due in court to appeal an order to extend his pre-trial detention but an early-morning health check found him unfit to attend the session.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers argued over whether to hold the hearing in his absence, but judges decided to adjourn the hearing to April 1.

The former schoolteacher suffers from heart disease and high blood pressure and was rushed to hospital on Monday night after blood was found in his urine.

It was his ninth hospitalization since he was arrested in November 2007.

Bangkok  - Thailand's government has decided to return to Cambodia seven artifacts smuggled into the kingdom almost 10 years ago, media reports said Wednesday.

The Thai cabinet approved the diplomatic gesture at its weekly meeting Tuesday, days before Thailand hosts the 14th Summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which will be attended by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.

Phnom Penh - The former "first lady" of Cambodia's genocidal Khmer Rouge regime told the UN-backed war crimes tribunal on Tuesday her accusers would be "cursed to the seventh level of hell" for implicating her in the deaths of up to 2 million people three decades ago.

Ieng Thirith, 76, faces charges of crimes against humanity allegedly committed while she was minister for social affairs during the ultra-Maoist Khmer Rouge's 1975-79 reign.

Phnom Penh - The long-awaited first hearing before Cambodia's UN-backed Khmer Rouge tribunal ended Wednesday after a heated debate between lawyers over the admissibility of new evidence in the trial of the genocidal regime's former chief torturer.

Presiding judge Nil Nonn said a date for the next hearing in the trial of former Tuol Sleng torture facility chief Kaing Guek Eav, known by his revolutionary name Duch, would be announced "in due course."