CEBU, Philippines, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Economic ministers from the 10-member regional bloc ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and the Republic of Korea (ROK) failed to find a way to quicken their negotiations on opening up services and investment here Thursday, saying they need more time to complete the negotiations.

    At the ASEAN-ROK Economic Ministerial Meetings held here Thursday on the sideline of the 12th ASEAN Summit and related summits, ASEAN and ROK economic ministers recommended to their leaders to move the date to finalize the agreements on services and investment to November 2007.

    "Due to the significant amount of detailed technical work required to move forward the negotiations, we recognize that the target date for the completion of negotiations will have to be extended," said an ASEAN-ROK joint ministerial statement released here Thursday.

    "We urged our negotiations to find creative solutions and exercise flexibility in resolving the remaining issues to expedite the negotiation process and thus bring the negotiations to a successful and timely conclusion," said the joint statement.

    Though an Agreement on Trade in Goods was inked by other ASEAN countries and ROK on Aug. 24, 2006, Thailand refused to join the agreement because of ROK's high-quota subsidies to its domestic agricultural products.

    On services sector, ASEAN and ROK were still discussing ROK's proposals on financial, telecommunications services together with the co-production of broadcasting programs.

    In the joint statement, economic ministers from ASEAN and ROK also emphasized the need to reach a "prompt" agreement on the threshold issues including the modality and approach for investment liberalization and the scope of the agreement.