HANOI (AFP) - The global financial crisis is high on the agenda for Asian and European foreign ministers meeting in Vietnam on Monday but diplomats said the issue of Myanmar could flare on the sidelines.

The military-ruled state is not on the official programme at the two-day ASEM (Asia-Europe) Foreign Ministers' Meeting but the trial of opposition democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi has again thrust the country centre-stage.

One diplomat said the Myanmar issue might spark "a lot of discussions on the sidelines" of the ASEM meeting.

An Asian diplomat said both Europe and Asia want better interaction but ASEM meetings were "always hijacked by one issue, which is Myanmar."

Western nations have criticised the military regime for putting Aung San Suu Kyi on trial for breaching the conditions of her long-time house arrest and in a rare move, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), last week issued an expression of "grave concern."

Myanmar's Southeast Asian neighbours traditionally prefer not to be seen as intervening in the affairs of their members.

Myanmar "strongly rejected" the ASEAN statement condemning the trial of Aung San Suu Kyi, state media said Monday, saying it was "interfering in the internal affairs of Myanmar.

But as international pressure on Myanmargrows, France's human rights minister said Sunday that Asian powers hold the key to persuading the junta to release Aung San Suu Kyi.

France and Europe have done everything they can and it is now up to Asian governments to turn up the pressure on Yangon, said Rama Yade before travelling to Hanoi.

"It is obvious that the key is in Asia," Yade told TV5 Monde. The junior minister said she had asked to meet Myanmar's foreign minister.

Luxembourg's foreign minister Jean Asselborn said last week the European Union must talk in particular to the Chinese "so that they put pressure on" the Myanmar government.

The EU's three-member "Troika" is expected to meet Myanmar Foreign Minister Nyan Win late Monday, a European diplomat said.

The "Troika" represents the European Union in external relations that fall within the scope of the common foreign and security policy.

There could also be a similar meeting with China, a close Myanmar ally, the diplomat added, unable to say what message would be conveyed to Nyan Win.

On Monday evening ministers are to launch an initiative for what they call rapid containment of "pandemic influenza" in the wake of the global outbreak of the A(H1N1) virus.

Japan's Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone will help launch a project to store medicines and protective gear to fight swine flu and other new strains of influenza in Asia, the Japanese foreign ministry said. Japan is contributing about 32 million dollars to the effort, it said.

Tamiflu and other anti-flu medicines as well as masks, gloves and other protective gear for 500,000 people will be stored in Singapore and distributed to Asian nations hit by new strains of flu.

Diplomats said climate change is also on the preliminary agenda for the wide-ranging talks.

South Korea's Foreign Minister Yu Myung-Hwan will use the Hanoi meeting to call for international cooperation to ease tension on the Korean peninsula, officials in Seoul said.

Senior officials met in Hanoi Sunday to pave the way for the ministerial talks. Among their discussions was the possible future inclusion of Russia in ASEM, a diplomat said.

The ASEM talks group foreign ministers or their deputies from the European Union, the 10-nation ASEAN, China, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia, Pakistan and India.