HUA HIN, THAILAND?Asian leaders heard competing plans from Australia and Japan for a massive European Union-style bloc covering half the world?s population as they wrapped up their annual summit on Sunday.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd presented his counterparts at the meeting in Thailand with his vision for an Asia-Pacific Community, possibly by 2020, as the region seeks to boost its global influence.

Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama then pushed his rival plan for an East Asian Community, a day after saying the region should aim to ?lead the world.?

Heads of state at the summit in the beach resort of Hua Hin also signed pacts on boosting integration after the global recession and cooperating on issues including climate change and disaster management.

The summit of 10 countries from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) plus China, Japan, South Korea, India, Australia and New Zealand was dominated by talk of unity. But the ASEAN summit was also marred by controversy over human rights.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the prime minister of host nation Thailand, said the leaders ?listened carefully and attentively? to the plans set out by the Australian and Japanese premiers, but would not rush to any decision.

?What we emphasized was that it wasn?t all that important to decide on some kind of rigid structure at the moment, but to be aware that the regional architecture would continue to evolve,? Abhisit said in his closing statement.

He said there would be a meeting in Australia in December to discuss Rudd?s plan and that the idea of an East Asian Community was moving forward in parallel with plans for a free trade area in the region.

More flexible

Rudd?s plan includes the direct involvement of the United States. The Japanese leader?s proposal, however, is more flexible, while still maintaining that Washington is a ?cornerstone? of Japanese policy.

?What I detect across the region is an openness to a discussion about how we evolve our regional architecture into the future,? Rudd told reporters before laying out his plan.

?I have not set an urgent timeline on this, I have in fact suggested a timeline of 2020,? he added. He would not say if his plans called for a common currency.

New model

Abhisit said the Asian leaders had given high priority to finding a new economic growth model to free half the world?s population from merely serving as producers for the West.

He told a press conference that Asian nations would have to strengthen their domestic markets and further liberalize regional trade.

?The old growth model where, simply put, we have still to rely on consumption in the West for goods and services produced here will no longer serve us in the future,? Abhisit said.

East Asia?s role

The Asian leaders, a conference document said, noted that the region had shown signs of recovery from the global crisis and ?regained its pace of economic growth.?

?East Asia could therefore play a crucial role in driving global economic recovery and in reforming the international financial architecture,? it said, noting that the Asian Development Bank recently revised its forecasts for East Asian economic growth from 3.4 to 3.9 percent this year and 6 to 6.4 percent in 2010.

The East Asia Summit followed Saturday meetings of the 10 ASEAN leaders with heads of government from China, Japan and South Korea. Sunday?s expanded talks brought in Australia, New Zealand and India.

Dream of integration

The 16 leaders represent almost half the world?s population and more than a third of the global GDP.

The conference signed or noted 43 documents, several focused on economic integration.

ASEAN countries have haltingly tried to integrate their economies, and are seeking to eliminate trade barriers within the bloc to bring about an EU-style grouping by 2015.

?Over the past year we have proved that ASEAN continues to move forward. We have risen to the challenges of the times,? Abhisit said, noting regional cooperation in coping with the global economic crisis, swine flu and several natural disasters in the region.

Vietnam is next chair

The next summits have been scheduled for Hanoi in April and October next year, when Vietnam assumes the ASEAN chairmanship.

Thailand and neighboring Cambodia remained at loggerheads over the fate of fugitive former Thai leader Thaksin Shinawatra, after Cambodian Premier Hun Sen offered him a job as his economic adviser.

Chinese Premier Wen agreed with his Indian counterpart Manmohan Singh to work toward narrowing differences on a long-simmering dispute over the Indian border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

Around 18,000 troops and dozens of armored vehicles were deployed in Hua Hin after the Asian summit was twice postponed by antigovernment protests led by supporters of the exiled Thaksin. Reports from Agence France-Presse and Associated Press