At the forthcoming meeting in Pattaya, Thailand this weekend, Lee said, ASEAN economic ministers will sign the China-ASEAN Investment Agreement, and they have also started work on the next steps: an ASEAN plus three FTA and an East Asian Summit FTA.

Talking about the role Singapore can play in the regional bloc, Lee said that as a small country, Singapore tries to be an honest broker.

"We work with our ASEAN counterparts to engage major powers in the region. We contribute ideas, and help to foster consensus among the countries," he said.

Lee stressed that the excellent relationship between China and Singapore can serve as "a bridge" to promote better understanding and cooperation between China and ASEAN.

Hailing the ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF) as "the premier forum" for promoting peace and security in the region, he said that such forum covers both traditional (such as counter-terrorism) as well as non-traditional (such as disaster relief, maritime security and non-proliferation) security cooperation.

As active participants in the ARF, China and Singapore are cooperating on several initiatives in nuclear safety, non-proliferation and disaster relief, Lee said, adding that the two countries are also co-organizing an ARF seminar on laws and regulations in disaster relief in Beijing later this month.

Lee said that they applaud China's commitment to the ARF, and working together, they can jointly enhance the ARF's role in promoting peace and security in the Asia Pacific.

Lee urged Asia to maintain open in trade and investment, saying that such regime is vital to the region.

"All countries depend on trade to develop and grow their economies. Amidst the global economic difficulties, we must signal to the world that East Asia continues to be open for business, to give investors confidence to make long term investments in the region," he said.

In regard to how to deal with the current global crisis, Lee said that the first priority must be to resolve the current global crisis as quickly as possible.

He detailed that this requires countries to work together to address the falling global demand. They must break the debilitating cycle of poor consumer sentiment, weakening economic activity and tightening credit, he added.

The decision of the recent G20 meeting in London to commit US$1 trillion to mend the world economy through the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and other institutions will contribute to this, he said.

In the developed countries, he continued, the most urgent task is to repair the financial systems. This includes recapitalizing banks and removing toxic assets from their books.

Countries must also continue to reject all forms of financial protectionism, and government measures that push banks to lend more domestically at the expense of their foreign lending will especially hurt emerging economies, he stressed.