JOSEPHINE MA in Beijing

Premier Wen Jiabao is expected to sign two agreements that will pave the way for a free-trade zone with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, during a visit to Laos starting on Sunday.

The agreements are aimed at supporting Beijing's efforts to expand exports and turn around trade deficits with its Southeast Asian neighbours.

Foreign Vice-minister Wu Dawei said yesterday he was confident that officials would strike an agreement with the 10 Asean members to remove tariffs on most goods by 2010 during Mr Wen's three-day visit to Vientiane, which would be his first trip to landlocked Laos.

Mr Wu said nine of the Asean nations, with the exception of Vietnam, had already agreed on the deal.

He said Vietnam's concerns were considered only minor and that both sides had agreed to resolve them before the "10 plus one" meeting between Asean and China.

Mr Wen is also expected to sign an agreement setting up a mechanism to resolve disputes in the proposed free-trade zone, as well as a memorandum of understanding on transport.

Despite the expected progress, Mr Wu refused to predict when the free-trade zone would be established.

Beijing signed a framework agreement in 2002 to establish free-trade zones with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand by 2010, and with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam by 2015.

The Asean grouping is the mainland's fifth-biggest trading partner, with bilateral trade in the first 10 months of this year growing by 35.2 per cent to US$84.61 billion, according to Xinhua.

The "10 plus one" meeting will be followed by talks that will also involve Japan and South Korea, as well as a trilateral summit between Beijing, Tokyo and Seoul.

Mr Wu said a separate meeting between Mr Wen and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was still being arranged.

"The possibility of this meeting taking place is higher than that of it not taking place," he said.

He would not speculate on the agenda of the meeting, but reiterated that Beijing hoped to resolve a dispute over oil exploration in the East China Sea.