Colombo: Sri Lanka and Pakistan will enter into a long-awaited free trade agreement (FTA) by January during a visit to Islamabad by President Chandrika Kumaratunga, visiting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said today (Nov 22, 2004).

Aziz said the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) was almost ready to be signed and he expected all problems to be sorted out when a meeting takes place in Islamabad in two days to finalise the deal.

"Where there are problems, we will work around them," Aziz said. "We are hopeful we can make the FTA operational by the time President Kumaratunga visits Pakistan in January."

He said bilateral talks focused on greater economic and political cooperation between the two countries and there would be a review of joint cooperation later in December.