THE US and Japan yesterday agreed on the framework of a new semiconductor accord that Tokyo hopes would begin as a bilateral pact and evolve into a multilateral agreement including the European Union.

Negotiators meeting in Vancouver agreed the two countries would continue to monitor market share through their semi conductor industries.

This marked a shift from the government intervention at the centre of two previous US Japan semiconductor pacts.

The two sides were continuing to negotiate the details of how market share data would be interpreted by the governments as an indication of market openness.

Tokyo has insisted that the US government should not have a direct role in the monitoring of the market.

However, negotiators were fearful the deal could still fall apart if some of the outstanding points were not agreed.

"It has been frustrating," said a US trade official. "Every time we seem to be close to closing our differences, it evaporates," he added.

Officials earlier said they had made rapid progress on a two pronged deal in which the semiconductor industry would play the central role in collecting, analysing and reporting data on Japan's $44 billion (£27.3 billion) computer chip industry, leaving governments only a vague role in monitoring developments.

"If you have the data you know how the market is functioning," one US trade official said.