An inaugural East Asia summit in Malaysia will speed up Asian economic integration but will not be an exclusive grouping, Singapore's Foreign Minister George Yeo said on Tuesday.

"The East Asia Summit will help us build the long-term architecture of peace and cooperation in Asia, with Asean at the centre," Yeo told business people and officials at the Global Leadership Forum in Kuala Lumpur.

The minister said an economically integrated Asian community with more than half the world's population would be the "best guarantee" for the success of the World Trade Organisation's multilateral trading system.

"Against this landscape, the coming inaugural East Asia Summit will accelerate the process of Asian economic integration with far-reaching consequences for all of us," Yeo said.

The summit in December in Kuala Lumpur will include the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) along with China, India, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

The United States has been opposed since 1990 to an East Asia-only summit, amid concern that China would play the most prominent role and Washington's influence in the region would wane.

Open and inclusive

But Yeo said the summit would not become an exclusive club because countries would still take account of their own strategic interests outside of the meeting.

"There is no danger that such an Asia will be exclusive because, however warm their relations, China, India and Japan are major powers (that) will always have separate strategic interests.

"Bringing in Australia and New Zealand sends a clear signal that we are open and inclusive," he added.

While Yeo stressed the importance of continued Asean integration, he said it was unlikely the grouping would become as unified as the European Union.

"I doubt if Asean integration will ever reach even half the level of integration in Europe today," said Yeo, citing Asia's diverse cultures, religions, politics and economies.

"For example, it is hard to imagine Singapore accepting the free movement of people or national governments adopting secular policies which completely ignore the position of Islam in Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, or of Buddhism in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Laos," he said.

Asean groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar (Burma), the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.