KUALA LUMPUR -- Australia said on Saturday it is keen to negotiate deeper trade ties with Malaysia like the ones under discussion with its neighbors Singapore and Thailand.

"The answer is yes," said Trade Minister Mark Vaile referring to Australia's desire for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with Malaysia.

"We are anxious to broaden and deepen our economic relationship with all our trading partners, and if we could do that faster than what the multilateral system will deliver, then we will do that," he told Reuters.

Canberra, which is due to complete an FTA with Singapore by October and start talks on one with Bangkok any time now, has raised Malaysian hackles before with its plans.

Kuala Lumpur has said the plans will undermine accords made by the 10-country Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Malaysian Trade Minister Rafidah Aziz said this month after meeting ASEAN counterparts that disagreement over FTAs was a stale issue, though state news agency Bernama quoted her as describing Singapore's FTAs as academic.

"We don't believe them to be academic because they are delivering a much better economic environment, particularly in the services sector for example between ourselves and Singapore," Vaile said.

Despite their differences of approach on trade, Malaysia And Australia had two-way business amounting to $8.1 billion Australian dollars ($4.38 billion) in 2001.

Australian exports were dominated by metals, food, medicines, education and tourism mainly in exchange for Malaysian electronics and electrical goods.

Vaile said he did not see major shifts to the trade relationship from Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's decision to step down late next year after what would be 22 years in power.

"I don't know that there will be a significant change in direction and I'd have to indicate that during the years of Prime Minister Mahathir's leadership we have seen the relationship grow to where it is now," he said.

ASEAN groups the countries of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Plunging stock markets caused by U.S. corporate governance scandals has brought a clearer focus by Washington on sluggish world trade talks, Vaile said.

Accusations of bad faith in accords on climate change and the international criminal court also may have played a part in concentrating political minds in the U.S. capital, Vaile told Reuters in an interview during a visit to Malaysia.

"What we have seen in the last week, I think, is a serious recognition by both the administration and Congress on that," Vaile said in response to a question about criticisms of U.S. positions in various recent global accords.

President George W. Bush's government pulled out of the Kyoto climate change protocol last year and blocked efforts to set up a global criminal court, raising questions about how it may act in World Trade Organization talks due to conclude in December 2004.

Vaile said Washington's ambitious farm trade reform proposals this week and Bush's progress towards getting fast-track WTO negotiating powers from Congress marked a major change of gear.

"Maybe the catalyst to all that was the nose dive, the severe dive on Wall Street as a result of the weakness in corporate governance in the U.S. and recognition by government that it is (their) responsibility to lead on these things," he added.

U.S. blue chip stocks finished a volatile session higher on Friday after a week in which the market hit five-year lows on record trade volumes caused by worries over corporate scandals.

Australia, which hopes to negotiate a bilateral trade agreement with the United States to conclude in parallel with the WTO round, said the part played by world's major economic power was critical.

"Unless the U.S. is able to play a leadership role then it's hard to see a successful conclusion to these negotiations," he said.

Officials are engaged in WTO talks intended to cut tariffs on tens of thousands of industrial goods and open markets for services like banking and telecommunications.

They will also try to level the global playing field for farm trade by cutting back agricultural subsidies, with a deadline of December 2004 set for completion of the process.

Progress has been slow since talks started last year, with many of the world's poorer countries still skeptical about the intentions of the major powers -- especially the United States and the 15-nation EU -- whom they say are eager to open every market but their own.