Japan hosted Thursday a working group meeting of the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) free trade talks, marking the first one that was held in the latest TPP member.

The meeting that will end Monday mainly focused on one of the most difficult negotiations covering intellectual property, including patent terms for new drugs, as the 12 involving countries planned to conclude an overall TPP deal by the end of this year.

Negotiations on intellectual property have the largest number of technical and contentious issues and the members intend to deepen discussions as they have to wrap up the talks soon, Japan's deputy chief negotiator Hiroshi Oe was quoted as saying.

The latest TPP summit was held on Oct. 8 in Bali, Indonesia in a bid to resolve some intractable issues with many agreements on the most sensitive products in the tariff negotiations.

(Source: Xinhua)