CHINA has joined ASEAN member nations in pledging to establish a free trade area by 2010, according to a joint statement issued at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in Nanning yesterday.

The agreement is expected to lead to the freer flow of goods and services between China and Singapore, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand by 2010 and Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam by 2015, according to the statement.

"Negotiations on trade in services and investment should be accelerated to speed up the process for establishing the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said at the summit.

China and ASEAN have completed negotiations on trade in goods and are currently engaged in talks on investment and services.

By 2010, China and the oldest ASEAN member nations - Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand - will rescind tariffs on most products, while China and the newer ASEAN members will follow suit five years later.

The China-ASEAN free trade area would encompass 1.8 billion consumers and a combined gross domestic product of US$2 trillion, making it world's third largest after the European Union and the North American Free Trade Area.

China and ASEAN pledged to work quickly on agreements to progressively liberalize trade in services. The parties plan to promote investments by creating a "liberal, facilitative, transparent and competitive investment regime in China and ASEAN," the statement said.

The countries involved also said they will set up a China-ASEAN Center for Trade, Investment and Tourism Promotion.

China and ASEAN will cooperate in ensuring energy security, efficiency and the development of alternative and renewable energy sources, the statement said. They will also strengthen cooperation in finance, tourism and air transport.

China and ASEAN encourage further action on sub-regional issues such as the development of economic cooperation zones in southwest China and the Mekong Basin Development areas, according to the statement.

Wen said the Chinese government will donate US$1 million to the ASEAN Development Fund and another US$1 million for projects under a program called the Initiative for ASEAN Integration. The summit opened yesterday afternoon in the capital of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.