Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday that the talks on a free trade agreement between Australia and China are going faster than was expected and the feasibility study might be finished before the scheduled date of October next year.

    "When (Chinese) President Hu Jintao came to Canberra (last October) we agreed to set up a scoping study, to look at whether afree trade agreement with China is appropriate, and that work has started," Downer said at a business breakfast in Perth, the capital of the state of Western Australia.

    The mood in the talks was very good, he said, estimating that the scoping study might be accomplished before the scheduled time on the initial timetable.

    "I think the original timetable we set for the conclusion of this scoping study was around October 2005 - I think we will do better than that," Australian Associated Press quoted him as saying.

    Downer said there is mutual benefit in exploring relationship and speeding up talks toward a free trade agreement between the two countries.

    "We ought to do it a little faster than we are doing now," he said.

    China is Australia's third-largest trading partner now, while Australia is China's ninth-largest trading partner. Enditem