Visiting Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss said on Friday that the China-Australia Free Trade Area (FTA) negotiations are expected to make real progress soon.

"We will continue to work hard with our Chinese counterparts to achieve real progress in the negotiations," said Truss at a ceremony.

"But there is a lot of work to be done," he said.

Australia was one of the first Western countries to initiate FTA negotiations with China. The FTA negotiations, which began in 2005, have now entered a substantial phrase.

The 8th round of talks concluded in Beijing in March, with the two sides reaching consensus on some sections of the FTA agreement.

"China-Australia FTA talks are the strategic choice by the two countries, and the two sides are working hard to realize the goal, " said Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Yi Xiaozhun.

During a visit to Australia in April, 2006, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Australian Prime Minister John Howard agreed to seek substantial progress in the FTA talks within one or two years.

China-Australia trade volume hit 32.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2006, up 20.6 percent from 2005. In the first three months this year, bilateral trade reached 6.27 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua