Japan cast off reservations about closer economic ties with southeast Asia, agreeing to push for a free trade area within a decade as rival China also progressed towards closer relations.
Slow growth among the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), and Japan's stuttering efforts at reviving its economy from a decade in the doldrums, helped convince trade ministers from both sides to speed up liberalisation efforts.
"We have agreed to recommend to our leaders that we would like to establish closer economic ties as soon as possible within 10 years," Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Takeo Hiranuma told a news conference after meeting ASean counterparts.
"Our basic policy is to negotiate a wide range of sectors, including agriculture, in pursuing economic ties, including a possible FTA (free trade area)."
Trade ministers from Asean, which groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, had held talks with fellow Chinese minister Shi Guangsheng just hours earlier.
The two sides agreed plans for a fast-track, partial introduction of their Asean-China free trade area from 2004, with full implementation around 2011.
Meeting chairman Abdul Rahman Taib, Brunei's minister of industry and primary resources, did not rule out the idea South Korea might seek to join what would be an Asean plus three during its meeting with southeast Asian minsters on Saturday.
"We have not talked to the South Korea yet. We don't know what their intentions are," he said in reply to questions at the same news conference.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi proposed the idea of closer economic ties with Asean during a tour of the region in January, though commentators viewed it as optimistic given his strongly entrenched domestic farm lobby.
A study prepared for ministers said closer ties would boost Asean exports to Japan by 44 per cent as trade in the opposite direction rises 27 per cent. It could also add nearly two per cent to Asean's gross domestic product.
Singapore Trade Minister George Yeo highlighted the greater economic potential presented now by a deal with Japan, Asean's long-time investor and major business partner, than with China.
"If we are prepared to have an FTA with China in 10 years, how much more prepared should we be to have an FTA with Japan in less than 10 years," he told the same news conference.
Japan has pushed for closer ties with ASEAN since the group announced plans last year to work towards freer trade with China.
Ministers from ASEAN and China earlier declined to give details of a proposed list of products to be considered for speedier tariff cuts, though officials said more sensitive, significant items like rice or palm oil risked exclusion.
Their negotiators will meet again in Singapore next month to iron out final details before leaders sign a framework deal on the trade area during a November summit in Cambodia.
A report prepared in 2001 by ASEAN and Chinese officials identified trade in oil and gas, food, natural-resource based products, electronics, electrical goods and tourism as among the sectors offering most opportunity for expansion.