Southeast Asian leaders agreed on the urgent need for more action to address non- communicable diseases in the region at the 23rd ASEAN Summit held here Wednesday.

A declaration adopted at the summit chaired by Hassanal Bolkiah, the sultan of Brunei Darussalam, said cardiovascular diseases, cancers, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases are the leading cause of death in ASEAN member states.

"Increasingly younger people in low- and middle-income members are affected by premature mortality from non-communicable diseases leading to loss of productivity and social and economic consequences," said the declaration.

The leaders "agree on the urgent need to accelerate actions to reduce risk factors," taking into account cost-effective interventions recommended by the World Health Organization, it said.

The leaders asked ministers responsible for health, food and trade to "work together with other stakeholders, including NGOs and the private sector, for a common standing of healthier food choices."

They also called for strengthened health systems incorporating the principles of universal health coverage to improve early management and address complications.

According to the declaration, titled "The Bandar Seri Begawan Declaration on Non-communicable Disease in ASEAN," health ministers of the bloc's member states have been tasked with greater efforts to achieve a set of nine voluntary global targets to prevent and control non-communicable diseases by 2025, which was adopted during the World Health Assembly in Geneva earlier this year.

Also at the summit, themed "Our People, Our Future Together," the ASEAN leaders affirmed their commitment to ensuring that reducing the non-communicable disease burden and achieving universal health coverage are "featured prominently" in the bloc's post-2015 development agenda.

Established in 1967, ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.