New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark says she will attend next week's Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Laos.
Ms. Clark is only the second New Zealand prime minister invited to attend an ASEAN summit - the first was Robert Muldoon in 1977.
Ms. Clark says she expects the summit to see the possible start of negotiations between New Zealand, Australia and ASEAN on a free trade area.
ASEAN groups Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Information for this report is provided by AP.