Pacific Rim leaders vowed Tuesday to make progress in regional free trade negotiations aimed at lowering trade barriers to help sustain the fragile global economic recovery at their annual summit. 

Leaders of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), including South Korean President Park Geun-hye, U.S.

President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping, gathered at a scenic lakeside resort outside Beijing on Tuesday for the final day of the two-day summit. 

Obama and 11 other APEC leaders called Monday for the swift conclusion of a U.S.-backed regional free trade agreement, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), while Xi sought to push ahead with a wider free trade deal.

During the APEC summit, Obama expressed his "desire to make this agreement a reality. We're going to keep on working to get it done," describing the TPP as "the model for trade in the 21st century." 

"Agreements like this will benefit our economies and our people. But they also send a strong message that what's important isn't just whether our economies continue to grow, but how they grow; that what's best for our people isn't a race to the bottom, but a race to the top," Obama said. 

"Obviously, ensuring the continued growth and stability of the Asia-Pacific requires more than a focus on growing trade and investment," Obama said. 

South Korea has been considering joining the TPP talks that include Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam.

China is seeking to speed up the creation of a sprawling APEC-wide free trade agreement, better known as FTAAP, even though the world's second-largest economy is reluctant to open up its own market dominated by state-run companies. 

The idea of creating the FTAAP has been discussed for many years at the annual APEC gatherings, but China has stepped up diplomatic efforts in recent months to make it a formal agenda item, a move seen as bolstering its economic clout in the region. 

The push by China for the FTAAP is likely to meet resistance by the U.S. and some APEC members, which have made efforts to seal a 12-nation free trade deal, the TPP, that currently excludes China. 

Launched in 1989, APEC is mainly aimed at boosting trade among its members, but its focus has expanded to geopolitical tensions. 

Park and Obama plan to hold a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the APEC gathering later Tuesday, with North Korea's nuclear and missile programs expected to top the agenda. 

Xi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held their first bilateral summit on Monday, in an ice-breaking meeting that could serve as a chance to thaw ties. (Yonhap)