China, Japan and South Korea on Thursday signed an agreement on establishing a three-way cooperation secretariat in Seoul next year.

South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Xinsen and Japanese Ambassador Masatoshi Muto signed the agreement.

The agreement came after leaders of three countries agreed at their latest trilateral summit held on South Korea's southern island of Jeju in May to launch a permanent secretariat among the three nations to be tasked with facilitating tripartite cooperation.

The secretariat, to be set up in 2011 and be based in South Korea, will provide support to the trilateral negotiation mechanism and facilitate collaboration projects so as to fully promote cooperation and deepen future-oriented partnership among the three nations, Chinese diplomats here said.

In the last one decade, the three nations have established 17 mechanism of ministerial conference and more than 50 dialogue mechanism.

The three nations will engage in full preparations soon to ensure that the secretariat will be launched as scheduled, the diplomats said.