Weather bureau did not push for ASEAN Summit postponement: report

State weather forecasters have denied recommending the postponement of the annual ASEAN Summit set down for next week in Cebu due to tropical storm Utor, local media reported Friday.

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) said that Cebu would be affected but not directly hit by storm Utor, according to a report by radio station dzBB.

Utor remains classified as a tropical storm; its status has not been upgraded to that of a typhoon, said the PAGASA.

In its advisory issued at 4 p.m. Friday, Cebu, site of a summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), was placed under storm signal No. 1.

The tropical storm was spotted 350 kilometers east and southeast of Guiuan, Eastern Samar, with maximum sustained winds of 95 kilometers per hour (kph) near the center and gustiness of up to 120 kph.

Moving west at 24 kph, Utor is expected to make landfall over Southern Samar Saturday noon, and be in the vicinity of Tacloban City Saturday afternoon.

The annual ASEAN Summit, scheduled for next week, has been postponed to January 2007, the summit's national organizing committee announced earlier.

Source: Xinhua