The plan includes taking an inventory of the transport capabilities of the region's armed forces that can be used for humanitarian operations in the aftermath of a calamity, they said.

Foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Regional Forum (ARF) adopted a statement on "disaster management and emergency response" at the end of their annual meeting here Friday.

The statement said the ministers would "consider, as appropriate, the development of ARF general guidelines ... for the use of both civilian and military personnel within the ARF participating countries."

Such guidelines however must be consistent with existing United Nations and Asean mechanisms on disaster management and emergency response, the document said.

ARF groups the 10 Asean countries as well as the United States, Russia, Canada, China, Japan, South Korea, India and the European Union, among others.

"The decision to develop standard operating procedures on civilian military cooperation for humanitarian operations, I think, is among the most important portions of the statement," said M.C. Abad, head of Asean's ARF unit.

"It will allow for the use of military assets of ARF members for disaster relief... We will develop a database of these assets of the member ARF states," he told AFP.

Officials said the move to work on guidelines was timely following a spate of major natural disasters that have struck the region.