"Witnessing the (Asian economic) crisis...clearly, thereare very strong social and human impacts from economic problems," Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy told a news conference after the first day of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial meeting.

"There has to be engagement with women groups, labourgroups, human rights groups," Axworthy added.

Axworthy and Canadian Trade Minister Sergio Marchi putforward the proposal just hours after meeting Anwar Ibrahim's wife to stress their stance that the sacked deputy Prime Minister was entitled to a fair and open trial.Anwar is accused of sodomy and corruption, charges hedenies.

The Canadian ministers said they also met other labour andhuman rights groups to solicit their views, which they felt should bedrawn into the APEC process.

Earlier on Saturday, Malaysian and human rights activistsurged APEC leaders to focus on human rights at their summit on November 17-18."We urge the leaders to put human rights on the top of theagenda. There is no point in talking about economy when these things are happening just at their doorsteps," said Elizabeth Wong, a coordinator of Malaysian social activist group Suaram.

Wong and other members of the non-governmental Asia-PacificPeoples' Assembly (APPA) urged Indonesia to deal with anti-government demonstrations without violence. On Friday, at least seven people were killed in clashes between students and troops.

Axworthy said Canada was proposing creating an APEC taskforce to look at how to develop partnerships with groups such as APPA and help APEC "become engaged with a broader range of people".

Success in that endeavour, Marchi said, was essential toAPEC's own long-term success.

"Liberalising trade is not an end in itself, it is a meansto improve people'slife," he said.

"The two need to come together and to a certain degree willdetermine how successful APEC can be in the long run in building a bridge between the world of business and peoples."

APEC's credibility has been called into question by itsinitially languid response to Asia's economic crisis as well as by its perpetual struggle to keep on track the trade liberalisation agenda that is its bread and butter.APEC ministers will try again on Sunday to reach agreementon a fast-track trade deal in nine key sectors. The agreement has been stymied largely due to Japan's refusal to sign on for two politically sensitive sectors and U.S. Insistence that it must.