An announcement was made in Japan this week as part of Australian Prime Minister John Howard's visit that the two countries would share greater co-operation in areas such as trade and investment as well as exchanges in information, research and development.

Brown said under the new agreement industry bodies would be able to take part in talks between the two governments.

"I think this new framework will allow the industry to gain first-hand information from Japan on its policies particularly for trade," she said.

"Companies will be able to find out where the market share is in Japan for key products like coal and iron ore and is demand increasing or are they losing their share to producers like China, which is a big step forward."

The next set of talks between Australia and Japan will be held in Australia later this year. Published on Mining News.net on July 18.