BRUSSELS, Nov. 21 (Xinhuanet) -- European Union (EU) foreign ministers agreed on Monday to open services and investment talks with Mediterranean countries in light of a bolder ambition to create a free trade area by 2010.

    The ministers decided to authorize the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, to open the talks, just days before a Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona, the birth place of the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership 10 years ago.

    "Our common objective is the establishment of a genuine free trade area around the Mediterranean by 2010. The liberalization of services and investment is an essential part of our strategy to achieve this," said EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.

    Negotiations are expected to begin early next year.

    With services accounting for around 60 percent of their GDP, Mediterranean countries stand to make substantial gains from the gradual opening of the services sector and from attracting new investment, said a press release of the commission.

    They will benefit even more if the negotiations not only open up trade with the EU but also foster regional integration among the Mediterranean countries themselves, it said.

    The current segmentation of Southern Mediterranean markets results in intra-regional trade accounting for less than 15 percent of the region's total trade. This is the lowest such rate in the world for any region of this size.

    The commission announced last Tuesday that the EU would open talks with its Mediterranean partners on agricultural and fisheries products. Association agreements concluded between the EU and each of its Mediterranean partners already liberalize tradein industrial goods. Enditem