Gillard spruiks asylum plan

Prime Minister Julia Gillard is spruiking her plan for a regional asylum seeker processing centre on the sidelines of a major summit of regional leaders.

Ms Gillard arrived in the Vietnamese capital Hanoi last night ahead of today's 16-nation East Asia Summit.

The summit brings together the leaders of the 10 ASEAN countries plus Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will also attend as guests with their countries to be officially included in the summit from next year.