Kuala Lumpur

ASEAN remains slow in working out with China a code of conduct to ease tensions in the South China Sea, even as the regional economic grouping is on track to become a common market by year-end.

After wrapping up an Asean foreign ministers meeting on Sunday, Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs K Shanmugam told reporters everyone agrees efforts should be made to calm down the territorial dispute building up in the resource-rich sea. But he said Asean and Chinese officials have fallen behind in drawing up a code of conduct to achieve it.