RABAT Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia agreed on Tuesday to set up a free trade zone ahead of the 2010 target for trade barriers to end in the Euro-Mediterranean area.

"Morocco, Jordan, Tunisia and Egypt have decided to work to set up a free trade zone including Arab Mediterranean countries which would also be open to other Arab countries," Moroccan Foreign Minister Mohamed Benaissa told journalists.

The association agreements call for closer economic, political and social ties. The ultimate goal is to establish a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone of 27 countries by 2010.

Tunisia, Morocco and Jordan have already signed association agreements with the EU. Egypt is due to sign its own agreement in Brussels in the last week of June.

The agreement was signed by the four countries' foreign ministers at a ceremony in the southern city of Agadir. A royal palace spokesman said the accord was signed following an intuitive by King Mohammed who attended the ceremony.

"Today's event is a first step towards setting up the great Arab free trade zone. We are now in a new era ... ahead of the 2010 deadline for a free trade zone in the Euro-Mediterranean area," the spokesman said.

"We hope that our drive will not be limited only to accords. We hope it will translate into reality," the spokesman said.

Benaissa said the four-state free trade zone would "be ready in the short-term probably by the end of the year".

He compared the document announcing the free-trade zone between the four countries to Rome's 1958 steel and coal pact, which eventually grew into the European Union.

Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abderrahmane Chalgam told Reuters the accord would change the way Arab countries deal with their main trading partner, the European Union.

"When Arab countries negotiate with the EU, they talk to a bloc, while they look on Europeans as bits and pieces," he said.

Benaissa added that a team of experts from the four countries would meet periodically to define the technicalities of the project.

"The free trade zone will be extended to the six other Arab countries," he said in reference to Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian authority.

This starting point is important and practical," he said.

"This accord is also of high importance for Arab countries who have not yet signed an association accord with the European Union," Moussa added.