Associated Press

Tokyo, May 25:

Leaders of Japan and Malaysia today agreed on key elements of a free trade pact covering automobiles and most other sectors of their economies, in what could boost Japan’s share of Southeast Asia’s largest passenger care market, the foreign ministry announced. Japan’s prime minister Junichiro Koizumi and his visiting counterpart, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, agreed on the economic partnership during talks today that followed an agreement struck by their trade ministers last weekend in Kuala Lumpur.

The two leaders ‘confirmed that they have reached agreement in principle on the major elements’ of the FTA. The FTA is expected to be formally launched in December. After launching free trade talks in January last year, the two countries reached a basic accord on agricultural and marine products.