It comes less than a month after a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) traced the impact of the rapidly expanding 'ecological footprint' on the planet. The footprint reflects the scale at which the environment is being exploited to satisfy the current world's consumption and development patterns. According to the WWF's 'Living Planet Report 2004,' humanity's demand on the resources has exceeded the earth's supply capacity since the mid-1980s, with North American and Europe leading the assault on the planet's limited resources.

The average footprint of a person today is nearly 2.2 hectares, which is in excess of the 1.8 hectares of land for natural resources available for each resident of the planet, states the report.

Some Asian countries, like China, India, South Korea and the Philippines, have given conservationists a reason to worry - and a case to lobby for change - due to the amount of resources they consume under the prevailing pattern of development.

According to the Global Footprint Network (GFN), a think-tank in Oakland, California, which works towards achieving ecological balance, China requires a land area twice its size to satisfy its resource needs. India, the other booming engine of growth in developing Asia, is in the same league as China, states GFN on its website - also requiring a land area almost twice its size to meet its natural resource requirements.

China's economy grew at over nine percent in 2003, reflecting a tide of development that has helped lift millions out of extreme poverty.

India, on the other hand, has seen growth reach in excess of eight percent, a figure that has not helped dramatically to reduce the estimated 840 million people living under less than two U.S. dollars a day.

The Philippines, which trails China and India with its four percent economic growth, also requires a land area double its size to meet its resource requirements.

But they are all dwarfed by South Korea, one of the few Asian countries to reach rapid developed nation status after the Second World War. According to GFN, this North-east Asian nation requires a land area six times its size to meet its natural resource needs to sustain its growth.

The Bangkok meeting will provide participants an opportunity to scrutinise trends underway in Asia in order to shift away from the old model of development, which is not viable, said Achim Steiner, director general of IUCN. ''This congress should help reinforce the message that large Asian countries like [ROK]. China and India need to be more visible as influential actors to strike a balance between development and the environment.''