Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra insisted trade volumes between the seven-nation BIMST-EC group would increase "tremendously and quickly" but there were few fresh details on the group's key goal of a tariff free zone by 2017.

Thaksin urged the seven -- Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand along with new members Bhutan and Nepal -- to build their economies to become more than a "small blip" on the radar screens of the rest of the world.

He warned his fellow leaders in the Thai capital they risked becoming used to life at the bottom of the world's economic pile despite representing more than 20 percent of the world's population.

Challenged over what the meeting had achieved, Thaksin told reporters of a "warm" atmosphere in the meeting.

"I think you are going to see a lot of big change. This sort of meeting doesn't happen easily," he said.

However critics were scathing. Prapat Thepchatree, director of Thailand's Centre for International Policy Studies, said the leaders had come up with a "very vague" programme of action. "This is another photo opportunity," he said.

The two-day meeting in Bangkok was the first for leaders since the group was launched seven years ago, with its short history marked by slow progress towards a free trade deal.

In its final day communiqué, the group said it looked back with "satisfaction" at past accomplishments, citing a framework agreement on free trade and a BIMST-EC youth football tournament among its achievements.

It said the leaders "agree to take all possible steps including timely completion of the free trade area negotiations for realising the full potential of BIMST-EC trade and investment".

Negotiations are due to start later this year.

Despite the criticsm, the leaders remained bullish about the trade potential through BIMSTEC, designed as a bridge between South Asia and Southeast Asia.

Trade within the group is worth just 7.3 billion dollars, or four percent of their total trade.

The leaders agreed to improve cooperation in areas including terrorism, HIV/AIDS, trade and investment, transport, education and the environment but gave few details.

Top of the list of announcements was the name change. In a convoluted attempt to come up with a name with the same acronym, they hit on The Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation.

Problems arose when new members Nepal and Bhutan joined BIMST-EC, an acronym formed from the names of the five founder members.

Indian Prime Minister Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his first overseas speech since taking office in May, said the group was a key part of its "Look East" trading policy.

But he said the group had to tackle other key issues such as terrorism, religious extremism, gun running and drug smuggling.

In a rare public speech, Myanmar Prime Minister General Khin Nyunt also called for closer economic cooperation between the seven nations but failed to mention the political crisis in his country.

Myanmar, run by a military junta since 1962, is being squeezed by international sanctions imposed because of its slow pace of democratic reform and the continued detention of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi.

BIMST-EC was founded in 1997, the year the Asian economic crisis hit, to promote trade focusing on six key sectors from tourism to technology.

The three most advanced members, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, are committed to trade liberalisation by 2012, with the others following within five years. The next summit will be held in India in 2006.