July 6 (Bloomberg) -- Japan, China and South Korea agreed in Bali yesterday to endorse plans to develop an Asia-wide market in government and semi-government bonds to reduce reliance on foreign investment, Japan's Finance Minister, Masajuro Shiokawa said.

Shiokawa agreed with Chinese finance minister, Jin Renqing, and South Korean counterpart Kim Jin Pyo in a meeting to work toward expanding the bond market, which will require countries to pool resources to buy one another's debt, the Japanese minister told reporters.

A group of ll Asian nations last month agreed to support proposals for a bigger Asian bond market in a bid to make it easier to raise money and guard against a repeat of the region's 1997-98 financial crisis.

Finance Ministers from Japan, South Korea, China, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Austria and Ireland are holding a two- day meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali for talks that will also cover ways to curb money laundering and target terrorist financing.

Last Updated: July 5, 2003 22:28 EDT