South Korea's trade minister said Monday that Seoul will not rush to conclude negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) with Beijing, stressing that substance is more important than timing.

"The reason we are working to sign an FTA with China at an early date is to help promote global trade," Yoon Sang-jick said in a parliamentary session.

"China, too, hopes to conclude the FTA negotiations at an early date because it will help boost its own economy," said the minister of trade, industry and energy.

Yoon, however, said his country did not have a target date.

"We will not be tied down by a deadline but seek to ensure the substantiality of the agreement through negotiations," he told the parliamentary committee on trade.

Both South Korean and Chinese leaders have repeatedly called for a conclusion of the bilateral trade pact within this year.  The FTA talks had been launched 29 months ago in May 2012.

Yoon and other ranking officials here argue that it is in South Korea's interest to sign and implement the China FTA ahead of others to give South Korean companies a competitive edge in the the world's largest market.

Beijing, on the other hand, is said to be seeking to conclude the FTA negotiations before it hosts the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit next month, allowing the countries'

heads of state to sign the trade pact on the sidelines of the November meeting.

At the end of the latest round of South Korea-China FTA negotiations last month, South Korea's top negotiator, Woo Tae-hee said he doubted the negotiations could be completed before the start of the summit.

"The reason I cannot say when (the FTA negotiations) will be concluded is because there are so many remaining issues. We will do our utmost, but we will focus on making it a comprehensive and meaningful FTA rather than trying to meet a deadline," he had said. (Yonhap)