YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Officials from 21 Pacific Rim economies, including the US, China and Japan, began meetings yesterday that could move the region toward a bold goal — creating a Pacific-wide free trade zone.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meetings this week in Yokohama, just south of Tokyo, will culminate next weekend in a summit bringing together President Barack Obama, Chinese President Hu Jintao, Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan and 18 other leaders.

But the APEC meetings are being held against a backdrop of tension over currencies and territorial disputes that could undermine the summit's harmony. Finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific region agreed on Saturday at a separate meeting in Kyoto to avoid using their currencies as trade weapons and embrace steps to shrink global trade gaps.

Promoting free trade and regional integration will be the main focus of this week's meetings.

According to a draft of APEC's final communique obtained by The Associated Press, the leaders will agree to take "concrete steps toward realisation of Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP)" encompassing all 21 members around the Pacific.

Some members, such as Indonesia and the Philippines, are cool to the idea. And experts say it may be unrealistic given APEC's diverse membership, which ranges from impoverished Papua New Guinea to behemoths China and the United States. Also, APEC is not a negotiating body, so any trade pact would have to occur in a parallel forum.

The draft sets no timeframe for achieving such a Pacific-wide FTA. But as a building block toward that goal it points to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement that the US and four other nations — Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Peru — are negotiating to join. The TPP currently consists of four small economies: Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore.

Japan, worried that it is falling behind regional rival South Korea in forging free trade deals, is intensely debating whether to join the TPP talks. Business leaders have urged Tokyo to do so, but farmers fiercely oppose the move out of fear that a flood of cheap agricultural imports would wipe them out.

In a policy paper released over the weekend, the Japanese government signaled a greater openness to free trade deals than under previous administrations, which had strong ties to the farming lobby.

Tokyo said in the paper it was redoubling its efforts on free trade pacts, aiming to restart suspended trade talks with South Korea, seeking new trade deals with other nations, and pledging to do more to open up its economy — all to boost its sagging economic prospects.

"Japan's status is gradually declining," the paper noted. It said Japan needs to deepen ties with emerging economies to ensure future growth.

"Recognising this, the government of Japan is absolutely resolved to 'open up the country'," the paper said, adding that it would draw up an action plan by next October to reform its agricultural sector.

Tensions over territorial disputes are bubbling between host Japan and two of its big neighbours, China and Russia. Ties between Tokyo and Beijing are their worst in several years since Japan arrested — and then released — a Chinese fishing boat captain who collided with two Japanese patrol vessels off disputed islands in the East China Sea in September.