YOKOHAMA, Japan - Asia-Pacific trade and foreign ministers on Thursday urged economies in the world's fastest growing region to avoid protectionism and pledged to work toward creating a vast free trade area.

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Nine of APEC's members are also in the Group of 20 (G20), including the world's biggest economies - China, Japan and the United States.

APEC leaders meet in Yokohama at the weekend, immediately after the Seoul G20 summit.

The APEC ministers urged members to avoid taking new protectionist steps until the end of 2013 and urged wrapping up the Doha round of free trade talks by the end of next year.

"Open markets are vital for growth and job creation, enabling strong and sustainable growth in this region," they said in a statement.

"While (the) world economy is on its way to recovery, however, there remains a possibility of increasing protectionist pressures in the future."

The APEC ministers also championed a regional strategy of balanced and sustainable growth, an elusive goal at a time when the global economy is divided between cash-rich exporters and debt-burdened importers.

They said they would take concrete steps to create a vast Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP) in the region, home to 40 percent of the world's population and 53 percent of global economic output, by building on exising pacts.

Businesses have long urged a single pact for the Pacific rim to simplify a plethora of standards and rules.