Japan has won the support of Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand for its proposed 16-nation free-trade grouping with China, South Korea, India and the 10-country Southeast Asian bloc.

"We welcome the move," Michael Mugliston, head of the Asia trade task force at Australia's department of foreign affairs told reporters on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) economic officials meeting.

Japanese officials on Thursday proposed the ambitious trade bloc which would take in half the world's population.

The 16 nations last year formed the East Asia Summit - seen as a precursor of an eventual giant free-trade community.

New Zealand's Martin Harvey, lead negotiator with the foreign affairs and trade ministry, also backed the idea and said the proposition should be explored.

"We are in support of moves towards greater regional integration," he told reporters.

Harvey said such a proposal had a wide range of benefits from political to free trade in goods and services, and greater investment between countries in the region.

Cautious backing

Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz also gave cautious backing to the idea.

"We welcome any proposal that will create a bigger market and a bigger entity in the region," she said.

"In essence there is nothing wrong with that. But to implement it they have to look at whether it is a viable proposition, which areas (do) we want to tackle first. It is something that is not impossible."

Asean economic ministers will meet their counterparts from China, Japan, South Korea, Australia, India, New Zealand and the United States next week in an effort to liberalise trade.

An Asean official had indicated there was a cautious response to the ambitious idea, saying it was met with silence in the closed-door meetings.

"We were looking at each other. Our silence does not mean we oppose it or we welcome it," he told AFP Thursday.

India, Japan and Australia are hoping that the East Asia Summit will be the first step towards a free-trade East Asia Community but even the concept's proponents say it is decades from reality.

Japan's first free-trade agreement, with Singapore, took effect in late 2002 and Japan has since agreed on deals with Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines.

It is involved in ongoing negotiations with Indonesia, South Korea and the 10-nation Asean as a whole.