Asian leaders are expected to call for urgent measures to halt the slide in currencies in a statement on the region's financial crisis, a delegate at an ASEAN summit meeting in Kuala Lumpur said yesterday.

Asia's economic turmoil has virtually hijacked a meeting in the Malaysian capital of the nine members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), who have been joined for the first time by China, Japan and South Korea.

The "informal" summit opened with a dinner hosted by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad last night and is to continue until tomorrow. The delegate said there were two major points: calls for urgent measures to stop the currency slide, and calls for a mechanism to operate with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to end the currency turmoil.

Mahathir and Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai agreed meanwhile on the need for the IMF to speed up a study on monetary trading issues originally due in May, Thai government spokesman Akapol Sorasuchart said.

He told a news briefing that the main issue the two leaders discussed during a bilateral meeting yesterday was "about the problem of the exchange rates and...the financial crisis that is facing the region".

Meanwhile in Tokyo, the attention of anxious market players and an uneasy public will be focused on the scheduled release tomorrow of a government plan to stabilise Japan's troubled economy.

Japanese Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto has pledged not to let Japan's financial and economic woes spark a world financial crisis.