CEBU, Philippines, Jan. 12 (Xinhua) -- Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) expressed confidence Friday that their leaders will endorse a blueprint for the ASEAN Charter as the 40-year-old regional trade bloc is moving towards a more rules-based than simply a consensus-based organization.

    "We are very confident that we will be able to push through with the Charter. We think this is moving forward", Philippine Foreign Affairs Secretary Alberto Romulo told reporters at a press conference.

    Once endorsed by ASEAN leaders, the blueprint of the ASEAN Charter, drafted by a group of "eminent persons", will be finalized by a high-level task force.

    The 10 ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

    Ambassador Victoriano Lecaros, the spokesman for the summit, said earlier that although the charter would not be completed during the four-day summit in Cebu, the Philippines should be proud" that it all started here."

    "There was no draft or framework a year ago, but now we started drafting it," he said, adding that when the grouping grew to 10 members, a consensus became harder to reach, so it decided to appoint the region's elder statesmen to draw up the parameters.

    The Eminent Persons Group in ASEAN is working for the charter that is rules-based comprising of three pillars: Economic Community, Social and Cultural Community and Security Economy.

    The ASEAN Economic Community is one of the three pillars in the ASEAN Vision 2020, which was declared during the ASEAN Leaders Summit in 2003, to implement a truly single economy.