Trade chiefs involved in a Pacific Rim free trade initiative failed to clear a path for concluding a deal by the end of the year as proposed by the United States, but they agreed to accelerate their talks as much as possible, a Cabinet minister said Saturday.

U.S. President Barack Obama had hoped to have a substantial outcome in time for his trip to Beijing for an Asia-Pacific leaders' summit starting Monday, but that goal is now "hard" to achieve, Akira Amari, minister in charge of the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks, told reporters after 12 TPP trade chiefs met in the Chinese capital.

The ministers fell short of sharing a clear vision of when they will be able to end their talks that have entered the fifth year, but "we did agree on the need to accelerate negotiations" given a tight political schedule in the United States — which leads the TPP — toward the presidential election in 2016, Amari added.