Beijing: China and Australia agreed today to restart stalled negotiations on a free trade pact, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.

Rudd, on a four-day trip to China, met with Premier Wen Jiabao to discuss a wide range of issues including trade, environment, human rights and other issues, he told journalists following the talks.

"We agreed to unfreeze what has been the frozen bilateral negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and China," Rudd said.

"We are both committed to ensuring that this will be a broadly based, comprehensive and substantive free trade agreement."

Trade officials for the two nations would meet within a month's time to begin identifying the obstacles that blocked earlier negotiations and begin drawing up a road map on the way forward, Rudd said.

Rudd cited a free trade agreement announced by China and New Zealand this week as part of his efforts to bring "fresh political momentum" to the Sino-Australian talks which he hoped to conclude "as soon as possible."

Australia began negotiating a free trade agreement with China in May 2005 but officials said late last year that while differences had narrowed on some issues, overall progress was slow.

After the last round of talks, held weeks before Rudd won office in November, Australian trade officials said negotiations in some areas, including market access on goods including agriculture, were on hold.

The two sides also agreed to set up a ministry-level joint committee to discuss climate change, as well as support the expansion of bilateral cooperation in the services industry, especially financial services, Rudd said.

Source : PTI