Turnbull's ASEAN invite wins over leaders

Malcolm Turnbull's invitation to south-east Asian leaders to attend a special meeting in Australia has been enthusiastically received.

The prime minister, who's at the annual Association of Southeast Asian Nations gathering in Laos, invited leaders to a special Australia-ASEAN summit in 2018.

"That invitation has been received with great enthusiasm and we look forward to that as another building block in this already very strong relationship," he told reporters in Vientiane on Thursday.