Protesters force halt to Asian ministers' meeting

PATTAYA, Thailand (Reuters) - Demonstrators who had vowed to disrupt a regional summit in the beach resort of Pattaya scored a victory on Saturday when the foreign ministers of Japan, South Korea and China were forced to cancel a trilateral meeting.

The protesters, supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, blocked the entrance to the meeting venue, and Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone was unable to reach it from his nearby hotel, a Japanese foreign ministry official said.

"The trilateral meeting has been canceled," the Japanese foreign ministry official said. "But the Japanese foreign minister has spoken by telephone separately with his South Korean and Chinese counterparts," he added.

The Chinese and South Korean foreign ministers went ahead with a bilateral meeting.

Red-shirted demonstrators were also chanting and waving flags close to Nakasone's hotel, watched by a handful of camouflage-clad military personnel.

The three ministers had been expected to discuss their response to North Korea's recent rocket launch, with Japan and China divided on how to deal with the issue.

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds and John Ruwitch; Editing by Bill Tarrant)