Japan is taking its first specific initiative in getting a still embryonic -- but potentially gargantuan -- economic forum of East Asian and Latin American countries grow smoothly.

Government sources said Thursday that Japan will host a two-day meeting of East Asian and Latin American private-sector experts in Tokyo beginning Feb. 20 to discuss various common issues facing the two regions and explore ways to promote trans-Pacific cooperation in economics, trade, politics and other areas.

Conclusions of the Symposium for Intellectuals from East Asia and Latin America, or SIEALA, will be reported to the first ministerial meeting of the 27-nation East Asia-Latin America Forum, or EALAF, scheduled for the end of March in Chile, the sources said.

EALAF, originally proposed by Singapore's Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong during a visit to Chile in September 1998, held its inaugural meeting in Singapore in September 1999 at the senior working level. Foreign ministers of the EALAF countries will meet for the first time in Santiago for two days, starting March 29.

The sources said that participants in SIEALA will also discuss the merits and demerits of globalization. The two regions, though oceans apart, face similar challenges.

The 1997-1998 Asian financial and economic crisis spread to Brazil and other Latin American countries. Many developing countries in both regions also face the daunting task of addressing the hardships of socially disadvantaged citizens, the widening gap between rich and poor, worsening internal security and other social issues.

Some observers blame these ills on globalization. Japan hopes that SIEALA will develop into a standing forum of East Asian and Latin American private-sector experts to complement EALAF, the sources said.

Among the 27 EALAF counties are the 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Japan, China, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Brazil and Argentina. ASEAN comprises Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar.

EALAF is an Asia-Latin American version of the 25-nation Asia-Europe Meeting, or ASEM, which was inaugurated -- also at Singapore's initiative -- in 1996.

Unlike the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, which was launched in 1989 and includes the United States, both ASEM and EALAF do not include the U.S. Although Mexico, Chile and Peru are APEC members, Brazil and Argentina are not.

While promoting economic and other cooperative endeavors across the Pacific, EALAF is apparently aimed at uniting East Asia and Latin America into a voice that can shout down the U.S.

Many protectionist Asian governments have long bristled at the influence the U.S. -- the world's largest importer -- has on the regions' politics and economics.