Southeast Asian leaders called on Sunday for swift agreement on a code of conduct for the South China Sea based on international law, while demanding an immediate halt to fighting in Myanmar and inclusive peace talks to end its civil war.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders Friday that the U.S. is concerned about China’s “increasingly dangerous and unlawful” activities in the disputed South China Sea during an annual summit meeting,

The sea, where $US3 ($A4.4) trillion worth of trade passes annually, was a major point of contention at the ASEAN meetings, particularly with Russia and China objecting to a reference to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, a US official said.