Japan and the European Union were readying to launch talks on a free trade agreement Monday, with a telephone summit expected to be held later in the day, the EU's trade chief said. The talks, from 6:30 pm (0930 GMT), are in place of a face to face meeting between EU Council and Commission heads Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which were shelved while Europe grappled with debt problems in Cyprus.

An EU-US free trade agreement to be negotiated shortly is a global "game-changer" which will boost growth and provide much-needed jobs, European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday. An accord setting up the largest free trade bloc in the world would be "ground-breaking ... a game-changer," which will add 0.5 percent to the EU economy every year once it is in place, Barroso said. Better still, "it’s a boost to our economies that does not cost a cent," he said, noting that after previous obstacles and objections, both sides were now ready for a deal.

US and European Union negotiators made some headway Wednesday toward a trans-Atlantic free trade pact, a person close to the talks told AFP. "Good progress has been made," the source said after EU Trade Commissioner Karel De Gucht met with US Trade Representative Ron Kirk. "The discussions centered around the potential free-trade agreement between the EU and the US." A free-trade pact between the two sides has been envisaged for years, but little real movement has taken place.