Malaysia and the United States on Monday kicked off their fifth round of Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations despite the call from a senior U.S. congressman to suspend the talks.

More than 150 trade officials from the two countries gathered in Sabah state in eastern Malaysia for the five-day meeting. Tricky issues that need to be ironed out include matters relating to government procurement and the service sectors.

The Malaysian delegation is led by Ministry of International Trade and Industry Secretary General Rahman Mamat while the U.S. delegation is headed by Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Barbara Weisel, the Bernama news agency reported.

The resumption of the FTA talks came under fire last week following a call by U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, who told a Congress hearing that he had written to U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab, urging the government to cut off negotiations with Malaysia until the latter cancels the energy deal signed last month between a Malaysian company and Iran's national oil company.

U.S. trade officials earlier described the fifth round of talks as crucial and reiterated their hope that the two sides should conclude FTA negotiations before March 31 this year.

The Malaysian government, however, is taking a more cautious stance, insisting it will only agree to the FTA if it is beneficial to the country and its private sector.

The two sides started the first round of talks on FTA last June. Currently, the United States is Malaysia's biggest trading partner while Malaysia is the 10th largest trading partner for the United States.

Source: Xinhua