President Park Geun-hye asked the parliament Thursday to endorse South Korea's free trade agreements with Australia and Canada as well as a bill meant to reduce the government's growing pension deficit.

"I need cooperation and assistance in the political community, including the parliament, to lay the basis for an economic take-off," Park said in a meeting with top officials of her ruling Saenuri Party at the presidential office.

Park made the appeal a week after the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs and trade passed two bills on Seoul's free trade agreements with Australia and Canada. The move cleared the way for a potential ratification in a plenary parliamentary session in coming weeks.

South Korea produced two separate free trade agreements with China and New Zealand to boost trade during Park's trip last week that took her to China, Myanmar and Australia for a series of multilateral summits.

South Korea has been aggressively pushing to ink a free trade deal with trading partners in recent years to boost growth in the country's export-driven economy.

Park also asked the ruling party to pass a set of bills on the budget and the pension reform through the parliament in a timely manner.

Lee One-koo, the floor leader of the Saenuri Party, said in the meeting with Park that he will ensure bills on the budget and others meant to improve the livelihoods of people will pass through the parliament by the deadline.

The government submitted a 376 trillion won (US$336 billion) budget for next year, up 5.7 percent from this year. 

By law, the parliament is required to pass a bill on next year's budget by the Dec. 2 legal deadline.

Park's ruling Saenuri Party commands a parliamentary majority with 158 seats in the 300-member National Assembly, which allows the ruling party to pass bills through the parliament without cooperation from the main opposition party.

Park's meeting with her party officials came amid outrage from civil servants over a bill meant to reform their pension system.

The ruling party has unveiled a set of measures to delay eligibility for public servants' pension to 65 from 60, starting in 2031, and to raise the proportion of contributions from 7 percent of income to 10 percent. 

The case for pension reform has gained urgency as the increasing average life expectancy for Koreans could further deepen the pension deficit. The average life expectancy for Koreans stood at 81 in 2012, up nearly 30 years from 1960 when the pension system was first drawn up.

South Korea has faced the looming crisis as previous governments delayed addressing the issue of pensions for civil servants, despite being aware for decades that the current pension plan is not sustainable.

Meanwhile, the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy rejected Park's invitation to the presidential office for talks. (Yonhap)