DENPASAR, INDONESIA, April 20 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) ended its two-day retreat here Thursday with pledge to continue their discussion on ASEAN's charter in the near future.

    Syed Hamid Albar, Malaysian Foreign Minister and chairmen of the meeting, said at a press conference after the informal meeting, that this was a productive and the most successful retreat which have ever had by the foreign ministers.

    "I think the formulation of the retreat allow us to discuss important issues to the ASEAN," he stressed.

    "I think we look at our selves, in term of our current state, as well as our future direction, how we could among ASEAN work together to see the unity and the cohesiveness of ASEAN, the decentralize of ASEAN as we interact with other related processes within ASEAN its self. How we could be effective of driving force in the mechanism that has been created, and I think overall I would see that we look at how we could overcome the development gap between ASEAN countries, the rules of the secretariat, it has to be enhanced", he said.

    The annual retreat, conducted in an informal, setting has no formal agenda in order to allow the ministers to engage in an open, frank and free-flowing discussion on the important issues affecting the region.

    The Foreign ministers' retreat was held following a two-day meeting of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) here on Monday and Tuesday.

    The EPG, set up at the 11th ASEAN Summit in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur, is made up of experienced figures from ASEAN countries, including Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam. Enditem