AP

TOKYO (AP) — Australia's prime minister said Monday that a free trade deal with Japan is "within our grasp" after years of negotiations.

Tony Abbott, who led his conservative coalition to power in September elections, is leading a mission of hundreds of people to Tokyo. It is part of an East Asian tour that will also take him to China and South Korea as he seeks to deepen economic ties with the region.

"Things are going very well indeed," Abbott told Australian and Japanese executives ahead of his meeting with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, where the two leaders were expected to conclude the trade negotiations. "It has eluded us for so many years but is now within our grasp," he said.

Japan is Australia's second-biggest trading partner after China and a major customer for its beef and other farm goods.

Abbott had said Sunday that some issues remained to be resolved with Tokyo on trade. Japanese media reported progress on the key sticking points of tariffs on beef exports from Australia and car exports from Japan.

Both sides see significant potential for growth in trade in those areas should an agreement be reached.

"We asked so many times for this," said Akio Mimura, chairman of the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce and Industry. "This will be the last time."

Among the business leaders visiting Japan with Abbott were finance, gambling and mining industry executives. Gaming mogul James Packer reportedly is among them, seeking local partners for a joint venture casino that his company Melco Crown hopes to build if Japan passes a new law to allow them.

During his visit to Seoul, Abbott will finalize a free trade agreement reached earlier between Australia and South Korea.

Abbott said he was determined to end Australia's "Eurocentric" bias. Australia's exports of iron ore and other resources have played a crucial role in its own affluence and the economic rise of Japan, China and other Asian economies, he said.

There was a time, Abbott said, when some organizations in Australia banned Toyota cars from their parking lots, due to animosity that lingered from World War II.

"My visit so early in my tenure is a deliberate statement of my government's priorities," he said. "Australia is not in the wrong region but in the right one. We are in the right place at the right time," he said.

Separately, the U.S. and Japan were holding talks Monday in Tokyo on a trans-Pacific trade agreement. Australia is also a part of those talks, where progress appears to have stalled, at least partly due to disputes over U.S.-Japan trade in cars and farm products.

Japanese officials said before Abbott's visit that whaling, another contentious issue, would not be on the agenda.

Last week, the International Court of Justice ruled that Japan's annual hunt in the Antarctic was not for scientific purposes, as Tokyo had claimed, and ordered it halted. Australia, which brought the case against Japan in 2010, praised the judgment. Environmentalists have long sought an end to the whaling program on ethical grounds.