By Chua Chin Hon, US Bureau Chief and Tracy Quek , US Correspondent

WASHINGTON - The United States must be an important part of any new East Asian framework, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday, cautioning against defining the region in closed or racial terms.

At a gala dinner where he was conferred a lifetime achievement award for fostering US-Asean ties, he said that the US would remain the sole superpower for two or three more decades despite the fallout from last year's global crisis.

While China may be rapidly gaining economic and geopolitical clout, Beijing is neither willing nor ready to take on equal responsibility for managing the international system. Therefore, the US should not be shut out of any new East Asian architecture, Mr Lee said.

Kissinger, Shultz and others recall encounters with MM

It was a stormy night, but inside the Mandarin Oriental hotel ballroom, the mood was warm and celebratory, as past and present United States officials and top businessmen took turns to thank and pay tribute to the man they credit with forging closer political and economic ties between the US and South-east Asia over the past four decades. But it was some of the speakers' anecdotes of their personal interactions with Mr Lee that enthralled the audience, their stories offering a rare glimpse into the world of high-powered friendships between leaders who played a role in shaping their countries' bilateral ties and strategic views about global challenges.

Former secretary of state George Shultz, 89, highly-respected for two decades of public service, received a standing ovation as he walked up to the podium to make a speech, which he began by saying he had learned a great deal from Mr Lee.

One of the reasons he visited Singapore in 1973 - when he was Treasury Secretary in the Nixon administration - was to meet Mr Lee, who was then Prime Minister.

US-China competition yes, but conflict? No

COMPETITION between the United States and a rising China is inevitable, but conflict between the two powers is not, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said yesterday.

'Unlike US-Soviet relations during the Cold War, there is no bitter, irreconcilable ideological conflict between the US and a China that has enthusiastically embraced the market,' he noted in his keynote address at the US-Asean Business Council's 25th anniversary gala dinner.

'(The Chinese leaders) have concluded that their best strategy is to build a strong and prosperous future and use their huge and increasingly highly skilled and educated workers to out-sell and out-build all others.'

MM Lee on the beginning of his deep personal ties with the US

'Singapore's role will be that of a catalyst. We're a city state so we can leap forward quickly. The others have been somewhat slower because of their internal diversity, so we can act as a kind of catalyst to show them this is the way, (and) you can do it faster.

'China has found us a useful model economically. They decided not to follow the path of South Korea and Japan, of closing their domestic markets and building their own champions whether it was cars or computers...

'They took the Singapore path, invited all the multinationals to come in. And their engineers, designers are working for all of them. So in 10 to 20 years, when you get all these people to come together, you already have a little (home-made) car called the Cherry. I would be bold to predict that in 20 to 30 years, they could build a Mercedes or a Lexus. The sheer number of talent and people they have is quite scary.'

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