Trade Minister Simon Crean said neither Canberra or Beijing were linking the free-trade talks with Chinalco's 19.5 billion US dollar bid. Australia has deferred a decision on whether to approve the investment for 90 days.

"The Chinese have not sought to link the Chinalco bid to the FTA and nor have we, nor should we," Crean told Sky News. "That's a process that has to stand in its own right."

Crean, who will head to China for talks this week, admitted negotiations on the FTA were progressing slowly, even though Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and China's President Hu Jintao agreed in November to fast-track the deal.

"I wouldn't say stalled but I would say it hasn't moved as quickly in the last three months as we would have liked," he said.

Crean said agriculture, services and investment were proving the main stumbling blocks.

On agriculture, Crean said Australia wanted the same terms as New Zealand, which last year signed a deal that will all but eliminate tariffs between the two nations.

"The FTA has to be a comprehensively based one, it has to deal with agriculture," he said.

"I don't see how we can accept any less a deal on agriculture than New Zealand. We've also got interest in the services sector."

Crean also said bilateral investment needed to be dealt with through a new framework. He did not give details or specify how it might relate to deals such as Chinalco, which would be China's largest ever foreign investment.

"If this question of investment is important now, it will increasingly become important in the future," he said.

"Let's try and build a new framework for it, rather than dealing with it on a case-by-case basis."

China is showing intense interest in Australia's resources sector as it seeks to secure the raw materials for industrial expansion, and is likely to continue to do so, Crean said.

"Chinalco won't be the last proposition, presumably, that China is interested in in Australia," he said.

Australia last week delayed its decision on the Chinalco deal amid intense domestic debate about allowing Chinese state-owned entities more control over the country's resource base.

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Sydney (AFP) May 2, 2009
Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto and its Chinese state-owned suitor, Chinalco, have promoted their 19.5 billion US dollar tie-up to the Australian government as beneficial for both nations.