Myanmar says it's committed to ASEAN peace plan, despite general's snub

Oct 24 (Reuters) - Myanmar's military rulers pledged on Sunday to cooperate "as much as possible" with a peace plan agreed with ASEAN, despite a stern rebuke of the regional bloc for excluding the country's top commander from a summit this week.

In an announcement in state media on Sunday, the junta said it upholds the principal of peaceful coexistence with other countries and would cooperate with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in following a five-point "consensus" agreed in April, a plan backed by the West and China.

It refused to agree to send a politically neutral Myanmar representative instead of Min Aung Hlaing.

ASEAN's special envoy, Erywan Yusof of Brunei, had sought a meeting with ousted leader Aung San Suu Kyi, but the military government said that was impossible because she was detained and charged with crimes.

The junta warned Erywan not to engage with opposition forces it has outlawed, including the shadow National Unity Government, an alliance of pro-democracy and armed ethnic groups, Japanese broadcaster NHK said, citing an unpublished report.

A Myanmar military spokesman and Erywan's office did not immediately respond to separate requests for comment on Sunday on the reported warning.

The military insists it is the legitimate authority in Myanmar and its takeover was not a coup, but a necessary and lawful intervention against a threat to sovereignty posed by Suu Kyi's party, which it said won a fraudulent election last year.