Prime Minister John Key is increasingly confident a trade deal with the United States and nine other nations can be completed next year.
Mr Key has emerged from talks on the Trans-Pacific Partnership at the East Asia Summit in Cambodia.
The 11-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership includes New Zealand, the US and and nine other Asia-Pacific rim countries.
Mr Key says Mr Obama made it clear he was totally committed to the deal.
"Leaders agreed that we would try and get a negotiated deal by 2013. That's the ambition that we have but I'd say just looking at the President this morning, and his determination, I am much more confident than when I walked into that meeting."
After US President Barack Obama urged the other leaders to join the deal, Mr Key talked about what it would take to reach an agreement.
He repeated New Zealand's desire to have to get a high quality deal that eliminates trade tariffs.
Some of the sticking points of the negotiations have been agriculture, pharmaceuticals and intellectual property.
The Prime Minister is now set to hold trade talks with the leaders of Brunei, Laos, and Vietnam.
