The first batch of 2,500 US Marines to be deployed in Australia arrived in Darwin last month as Washington bolsters its presence in the strategically vital Asia-Pacific, to the irritation of China.

"It was a relatively muted response (from China)," Carr told reporters in China's commercial hub of Shanghai, the first stop on an official visit.

"I would be surprised if China's policy makers and strategic thinkers didn't recognise the rotating Marine presence in northern Australia as a relatively modest development."

The American troops will be stationed in Australia on a six-month rotational basis, building to more than 2,000 by 2016-17.

China's foreign ministry called for "peace and stability" in the region after the first group of 200 US Marines arrived in Australia in April.

But China's defence ministry criticised the move as proof of a "Cold War mentality" and state media accused US President Barack Obama of using his diplomatic ambitions in Asia to detract from US economic woes.

Carr, who became foreign minister in March, also said he would seek to deepen economic integration with China on the six-day visit.

China is a major trading partner of Australia and a keen consumer of its resources, needed to keep the world's second largest economy moving.

"Australia is a good site for Chinese direct investment and I want to seize the opportunities I've got here to remind the government," he said.

He added that China's interest in negotiating a free trade agreement (FTA) with Australia had picked up. The two countries have been negotiating such an agreement for seven years.

"China's interest in and commitment to the FTA process has quickened somewhat," he said.

Carr said he would also raise the cases of Australian nationals jailed in China when he meets Chinese leaders next week.

Earlier this month, a Chinese court sentenced Australian businesswoman Charlotte Chou to eight years in jail for embezzlement, but her supporters have linked the trial to a business dispute.

That followed last year's jailing of Australian businessman Matthew Ng for 13 years on bribery and embezzlement charges, following his involvement in a battle with a state-owned travel company for control of another firm.

"You can expect me to continue to raise these concerns and express the view that these cases should be handled transparently, expeditiously and in an open court," he said.

Carr will meet China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi and Vice Premier Li Keqiang, widely tipped to be the country's next premier, in Beijing next week.

Philippine fruit export leaders have been quoted as saying that shipments, especially bananas, were rotting in Chinese ports because pests had been discovered in some produce, prompting stricter quarantine inspections.

President Benigno Aquino's spokeswoman Abigail Valte said: "We are confident that this can be resolved given that our banana exports have already passed the stringent (standards) in Japan."

The agriculture and trade departments as well as the plant industry bureau were talking with their Chinese counterparts on how to resolve the problem, she said.

With total shipments worth $470.96 million last year, bananas are the Philippines's second-largest agricultural commodity export after coconuts, according to government data.

China is the Philippines' second-largest banana market after Japan.

The fruit issue first came up a month before Chinese maritime surveillance vessels prevented the Philippine navy from arresting Chinese fishermen on a disputed South China Sea shoal in April, sparking a tense stand-off.

China, Japan, S.Korea agree to start free-trade talks
Beijing (AFP) May 13, 2012 - The leaders of China, Japan and South Korea agreed Sunday to start negotiations towards creating a free-trade area this year, saying it would boost the economies of the region in a time of crisis.

A free-trade area among Northeast Asia's three major economies has been on the trilateral agenda for the past decade, beginning with an agreement among the three in late 2002 to launch a feasibility study on the issue.

"The three countries agreed to launch negotiations on a China-South Korea-Japan free-trade area within the year," said Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao after meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda.

Wen told reporters in Beijing that closer regional economic integration in response to a slow global recovery and an overall rise in trade protectionism would help unlock new growth potential.

"Northeast Asia is the most economically vibrant region in the world. So there is huge potential for our three countries to have closer trade and investment cooperation," he said.

"The establishment of a free-trade area will unleash the economic vitality of our region and give a strong boost to economic integration in East Asia."

China, Japan and South Korea combined have the world's largest economy -- ahead of the European Union -- when measured by purchasing power parity, which takes into account differences in the costs of living across nations.

Progress on a free-trade pact had widely expected to be on the agenda of the China-South Korea-Japan leaders' meeting on Sunday -- the fifth such summit to take place.

For Japan, free-trade talks with China and South Korea will come on top of efforts to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a trade agreement being negotiated by a group of countries led by the US, but excluding China.

"We will promote the TPP and the trilateral free-trade area in parallel. These efforts can be mutually reinforcing to each other," Noda told reporters.

China, Japan and South Korea are pushing the trade liberalisation agenda at a time when their export-dependent economies are under pressure from slowdowns in the key European and North American markets.

"When the economy is in crisis, it's more pressing to set up a free-trade zone. This is my personal proposition," South Korea's Lee said.

"In times of crisis, if countries, for their own survival, carry out protectionist ideas, then the recovery of the economy will take a long time," he said.