KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 24, 2006 (AFP) - Southeast Asian trade ministers met Thursday with counterparts from China, India, Japan and South Korea to discuss a proposed giant free-trade zone, and thrash out a web of free-trade deals. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members this week agreed to study Japan's proposal for a 16-nation trade bloc which will embrace half the world's population. However, ASEAN's secretary-general Ong Keng Yong said regional nations were cautious about the idea to integrate the economies of the 16 members of the newly created East Asia Summit. "Many of the ministers have not yet got a sharp sense of how the leaders would like to move the East Asia Summit," Ong told AFP. "Are we just going to see a brain-storming strategic forum among the leaders every year, or are the leaders now prepared to move to do something more concrete, like this idea of an FTA," he said. ASEAN ministers have also said they want to finish free-trade agreements (FTAs) they are forging with their dialogue partners, including Japan, and Ong said they were keen to avoid distractions. "Any related initiative that can draw attention away, or can draw resources away would be troublesome for our respective countries," he said. South Korea's Trade Minister Kim Hyun Chong said Thursday his country was open to Japan's proposal but echoed ASEAN's caution. "We are receptive to open regionalism and that's why we are an active member of APEC for instance," he told AFP, referring to the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. "I think we are going to have to approach this rather carefully." Ong said China held a similar wait-and-see view of the new trade bloc, which would take in the 10-member ASEAN plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand and India. "They are not yet sure how to proceed. It doesn't mean they don't agree with it. Because at the end of the day, any FTA will benefit China because they are now producing so much manufactured goods and agricultural products," he said. Japan's proposal comes just as ASEAN wades through complicated negotiations related to trade pacts it has signed with China and South Korea, and the one it is negotiating with Australia and New Zealand. Topping the agenda are attempts to free up trade in services, which would ultimately allow the free movement of workers between countries, raising sensitive immigration and labour issues, Ong said. The ASEAN chief said these talks would be "long and drawn-out." "You can go and establish a company anywhere in the country that has signed an agreement with us and the executives working for the company can just go in and out," he told AFP. "If we can sort this one out, it's basically a free movement of people already. So that's why it's not easy to do these negotiations." Other hurdles facing ASEAN include differences with Japan over the shape of their FTA, and stalled talks with India which has been criticised for declining to cut tariffs on a long list of mostly agricultural imports. Thailand has also opted out of an FTA deal that ASEAN and South Korea signed in May due to objections to Seoul's barriers on farm products, including its rice sector. Kim said South Korean and Thai officials were trying to conclude negotiations, although he told reporters that officials "would have to work very hard to overcome some of these sensitivities." ey/sls/lh