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Leaders of the 21-member APEC bloc pledged on Saturday to boost trade and do more to tackle other economic challenges, wrapping up the last of three summits in the region in a week that have been overshadowed by intense geopolitical rivalry.

The summits have been attended by global leaders, and the talks have often been disrupted by friction spilling over from the war in Ukraine as well as flashpoints such as the Taiwan strait and the Korean peninsula.

A Southeast Asian summit that included China, Japan and the United States was held in Cambodia, while the Group of 20 (G20) major economies met on the Indonesian island of Bali.

The APEC meeting was interrupted on Friday when Vice President Kamala Harris, who is heading the U.S. delegation, called an emergency gathering of allies on the sidelines to condemn North Korea after it test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States.

On Saturday, Thai Prime Minister and APEC chair Prayuth Chan-ocha sought to bring the focus back to economic issues and said APEC made "significant progress" by agreeing a multi-year work plan for a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP).

An APEC leaders' declaration said the group would uphold and further strengthen a rules-based multilateral trading system, but also recognised more intensive efforts were needed to address challenges like rising inflation, food security, climate change and natural disasters.

"This year, we have also witnessed the war in Ukraine further adversely impact the global economy," said the declaration, which said most members strongly condemned the war.

At the G20 meeting in Indonesia, members unanimously adopted a declaration that said most members condemned the Ukraine war but also acknowledged some countries saw the conflict differently.

The APEC leaders echoed the G20 declaration as they referred to U.N. resolutions that deplore Russia's aggression and demand its complete and unconditional withdrawal from Ukraine, but also noted a variety of opinions.

"There were other views and different assessments of the situation and sanctions. Recognising that APEC is not the forum to resolve security issues, we acknowledge that security issues can have significant consequences for the global economy," the bloc said.

Russia is a member of both G20 and APEC but President Vladimir Putin has stayed away from the summits. First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov is representing him at APEC.

'BRAZEN VIOLATION'

The U.S. city of San Francisco will host the next APEC summit and Prime Minister Prayuth handed over the chair to Vice President Harris at a ceremony.

"We are ready to conduct a seamless cooperation with them," he said, while presenting Harris with a "chalom", a woven bamboo basket used to carry goods and gifts in Thailand.

A day earlier, North Korea's missile test just an hour before the APEC forum was inaugurated prompted Harris to call an emergency meeting with leaders from Australia, Japan, South Korea, Canada and New Zealand.

"This conduct by North Korea most recently is a brazen violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions," Harris said.

Friday's launch came after U.S. President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on Monday in Bali and said Beijing has an obligation to try to talk North Korea out of resuming nuclear testing, while adding that it was unclear whether China would be able to sway Pyongyang.

Harris briefly met Xi on Saturday, a White House official said, adding that she had emphasised the importance to "maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries."

Ties between the superpowers have been strained in recent years over issues like tariffs, Taiwan, intellectual property, the erosion of Hong Kong's autonomy and disputes over the South China Sea.

Xi attended both the G20 and APEC summits and held a flurry of bilateral meetings, marking a return of the leader to the main stage of global diplomacy after China's long spell of COVID isolation.

Warning against Cold War tensions in a region that is a focus for competition between Beijing and Washington, Xi said on Thursday that the Asia-Pacific was no one's backyard and should not become an arena of big-power rivalry,

"No attempt to wage a new Cold War will ever be allowed by the people or by our times," he told a business event linked to the APEC summit.

Set up to promote economic integration, APEC's members account for 38% of the global population, and 62% of gross domestic product and 48% of trade.

Campaigners are keen to see leaders address issues such as food insecurity, surging inflation, climate change and human rights.

A reminder of grassroots demands came as Thai pro-democracy protesters clashed with police on Friday who responded by firing rubber bullets about 10 km (6 miles) from the central Bangkok summit venue. (Reuters)

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Saturday said it was premature to discuss any potential trips to China, days after he met President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia.

"What we have had this week is first steps and I'm not getting ahead of myself," Albanese said at a media briefing during the APEC summit in Bangkok.

Australia has clashed with China - its largest trading partner - over trade disputes and the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recently elected Labor government has been looking to repair the strained diplomatic relations.

"We will continue to ... take steps forward together," he said after reporters sought his comments on his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern, getting an invitation to visit Beijing after her meeting with Xi Jinping on Friday.

The New Zealand government said in a statement both leaders have confirmed a visit by Ardern to China "would occur at a mutually agreeable time."

Albanese also said Australia's position has not changed on Taiwan's efforts to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or CPTPP. He said all applications would be dealt with on their merits.

CPTPP is a free trade agreement that links Canada, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. (Reuters)

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Saturday met briefly with Chinese President Xi Jinping, a White House official said.

"The Vice President noted a key message that President Biden emphasized in his November 14 meeting with President Xi: we must maintain open lines of communication to responsibly manage the competition between our countries," the official said.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV confirmed the meeting later in the morning.

Xi Jinping said the meeting with President Biden in Bali, Indonesia, was strategic and constructive, and had important guiding significance for the next stage of China-U.S. relations, according to the broadcaster's official readout of the meeting.

"It is hoped that the two sides will further enhance mutual understanding, reduce misunderstanding and misjudgment, and jointly promote China-US relations to return to a healthy and stable track."

Harris and Xi met at the APEC summit in Thailand. (Reuters)

Countries were struggling to reach agreement at the COP27 climate talks in Egypt on Saturday, with some threatening to walk away if negotiators failed to make progress on fighting climate change.

With the talks already in overtime, officials from the 27-country European Union said they were worried about a lack of progress overnight and even the possibility of backsliding from parts of the COP26 climate deal agreed in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.

"All (EU) ministers ... are prepared to walk away if we do not have a result that does justice to what the world is waiting for - namely that we do something about this climate crisis," EU climate policy chief Frans Timmermans told reporters on the sidelines of the summit.

"We'd rather have no decision than a bad decision."

The outcome of the conference, which was meant to end on Friday, aims to strengthen global resolve to fight climate change, even as a war in Europe and rampant consumer inflation distract international attention.

But after two weeks of talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, none of the key issues in discussion this year had been resolved.

The Egyptian COP27 president urged parties to "rise to the occasion" and unite around a final deal, while defending the version so-far drafted.

"The text does keep the 1.5 alive," said Sameh Shoukry, who is Egypt's foreign minister.

Negotiators said they had not seen a fresh draft of an overall deal since Friday morning, although they had reviewed separate draft compromises for deals on the stickiest issues.

That draft had reaffirmed past commitments to limit warming to 1.5C, but did not meet demands by some, including the European Union and Britain, to lock in country commitments for more ambitious efforts to curb climate-warming emissions.

Dutch climate minister Rob Jetten said many countries were unhappy at lack of progress on commitments to cut emissions to keep global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius - the threshold at which scientists say the effects of climate change will get much worse.

"It's simply not good enough," Jetten told Reuters on the sidelines of the summit. "We're still waiting for some texts, but it feels like we're backtracking on Glasgow and that will be unacceptable."

Friday's draft for an overall deal also did not take on a suggestion by India that has been backed by the EU and Britain to ask countries to phase down all fossil fuel use, instead of just coal.

LOSS AND DAMAGE

The fractious issue of so-called loss and damage payments to countries already being hit by climate impacts had negotiators scrambling Saturday to hash out a deal for a fund to help countries being ravaged by climate-driven floods, droughts, mega-storms and wildfires.

In what the European Union hoped would be a breakthrough on the issue, it agreed Thursday to back the demand of the G77 group of 134 developing countries to set up a special fund.

But while some climate-vulnerable countries such as the Maldives expressed support, it was unclear whether the world's two biggest economies and polluters - China and the United States - would sign on.

The EU's offer came with the stipulation that the funding come from a broad base of countries including China, and that only "the most vulnerable countries" benefit from the aid.

Complicating matters, U.S. Special Climate Envoy John Kerry – a powerful force in climate diplomacy – tested positive for COVID-19 after days of bilateral in-person meetings with counterparts from China and the EU to Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.

A deal at COP27 must be made with support from all of the nearly 200 countries present. (Reuters)