(Reuters) - Foreign ministers of the Southeast Asian bloc ASEAN at a weekend retreat upheld their decision to bar Myanmar’s ruling generals from their summits and limit the country's participation to a non-political level, said Malaysia who currently holds the chairmanship on Monday.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers hold a closed-doors retreat in Malaysia on Sunday, as the country hosts its first meeting as chair of the regional bloc ASEAN amid an intensifying civil war in Myanmar and confrontations in the South China Sea.

Southeast Asian foreign ministers met this year under the regional bloc’s new chair, Malaysia, seeking a breakthrough over Myanmar’s drawn-out civil war and territorial disputes in the South China Sea

Southeast Asian nations told Myanmar's military government on Sunday its plan to hold an election amid an escalating civil war should not be its priority, urging the junta to start dialogue and end hostilities immediately.

The regional bloc told a junta representative at a meeting that a poll is “not a priority at the moment," Malaysia’s foreign minister said.