Some member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, have held unofficial foreign ministerial talks in Bangkok about the situation in Myanmar.

The meeting included a representative from Myanmar's military. Diplomatic sources said countries taking a tough stance against the junta refrained from attending, apparently to avoid sitting down with him. Their absence underscored members' differences on how to deal with the situation.

Thailand led the closed talks on Thursday. Attendees included Cambodian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn, who serves as ASEAN's special envoy on Myanmar.

The Cambodian government, this year's ASEAN chair, earlier said meeting participants were "expected to have a frank and candid deliberation on how to accelerate the progress in the implementation of the Five-Point Consensus."

ASEAN members and Myanmar's military agreed on the consensus, which calls for an immediate halt to violence, in April last year.

The Myanmar military was represented at the meeting by Wunna Maung Lwin, who was appointed as foreign minister after the coup.

The Thai government is using its own connections with Myanmar's military to try to break the deadlocked situation. ASEAN members have agreed only on a peace plan for Myanmar, but not on any concrete steps to push it forward.
The division among member countries has made the prospects for the plan's implementation even more uncertain.