Singapore - Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Friday urged Asia-Pacific nations to press ahead with their vision of free trade in the region, saying that the Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership Agreement (TPP), including Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore, was a promising tool to reach that goal.

"We have to work together not to protect our markets, but to take steps towards the vision of a free-trade area of Asia-Pacific," Lee said at the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.

"One promising way to do this is to push ahead with the trans-Pacific partnership of the TPP," he told a seminar of APEC business leaders.

The TPP, a purely free-trade agreement signed in 2005, was designed for other nations to join, Lee stressed.

"The United States, Australia, Peru and Vietnam have expressed their interest to join," he said, adding that "we hope this will materialize as soon as possible."

TPP was "a little seed that we hope will grow into a significant tree and a pillar of free trade and cooperation in Asia-Pacific," said Lee.

Other regional forums like APEC and the Association of South-East Asian Nations had also to play important roles in promoting free trade and integration in the region, Singapore's prime minister said.

As the recovery of the global economy was led by Asia, said Lee, "we are in the right region of the world."

"In the long term high growth will continue in Asia because China and India will continue to liberalize," he said.

The one-week Singapore APEC summit marks the 20th anniversary of the forum. It consists of 21 Pacific Rim economies, representing about 54 per cent of the global gross domestic product .

APEC includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Peru, Russia, the United States and Vietnam. (dpa)