Southeast Asian nationals will no longer need to obtain visas when travelling to 10 countries in the region by the end of this year, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in remarks published today.

Leaders of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations signed an agreement in 2002 to allow easier travel in a bid to revive confidence after the bomb attack in Bali that year.

The following year, an Asean meeting in Hanoi urged member states to work towards visa exemptions for travel within the region.

"This will be fully effective by the end of the year," Abdullah was quoted as saying by the Star.

"Of course, we cannot downplay the security requirements of the respective member states," he said in a speech read on his behalf by Tourism Minister Leo Michael Toyad at an Asean tourism conference on Langkawi island.

"However, in the spirit of Asean, I believe we can work together to create means by which we can address these concerns and at the same time ensure visa-free intra-regional travel."

Many Asean countries have bilateral agreements on visa exemption for their respective nationals, but the organisation does not have a multilateral visa agreement.

Asean members are: Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad went a step further in his address to the conference, proposing a single visa for entry to all Asean countries by foreign travellers.

"Wouldn't it be wonderful to receive tourists, where we have one visa for Southeast Asian countries. Asean countries should consider requiring a single visa for tourists," he said.