Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart have agreed to speed up work on a new defense pact that would facilitate joint exercises and deployments.

"We would like to work on our security cooperation in a positive manner and to start arrangements for the new pact as early as possible," Abe was quoted by a Japanese government official as telling Prime Minister Tony Abbott in New York on Wednesday.

The meeting came on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.