Sugar, rice and auto parts have become no-go areas as Southeast Asia tries to create a single trading bloc, but they will not derail efforts to liberalise by 2015, officials said Wednesday.

Malaysia's Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said the Association of Southeast Asian (Asean) recognised there were sensitive areas for trade in goods such as rice, but that they had little impact on plans for regional economic integration.

"The sensitive list is so small compared to the positive, that it's not even worth deliberating. We have never deliberated on this to the extent that it impedes our work," Rafidah said at Asean economic ministers' talks in Kuala Lumpur.

Other trade areas "can move forward and that's the one that is going to provide the momentum for Asean integration. We are not going to be held back by little sensitive areas," she told reporters.

Asean members have pledged to reduce tariffs on goods to between zero and five percent, but secretary-general Ong Keng Yong said that sugar, rice and auto parts were still touchy areas for tariff reduction.

Free flow of goods

"Of course some people will tell you there are some sensitive products that are still excluded, but those are things which we all accept. Sugar, rice, automotive spare parts and all that," he said.

"Everyone has already acclimatised to these special ways of handling what we call sensitive products," he said, adding that in the future they could "slowly... make improvements".

Under an Asean Free Trade Area, the region hopes to have a free flow of goods among the 10-member bloc by 2010.

Economic trade ministers have this week agreed to recommend to their leaders that Asean accelerate the creation of a single market or Asean Economic Community (AEC) to 2015, five years ahead of schedule.