Earlier, a senior Bangladeshi Foreign Ministry official told reporters that achieving the original January 1, 2006 deadline for the South Asian Free Trade Agreement (Safta) would require a meeting of minds "at the highest level".
Progress toward implementing the deal is due to be discussed by the leaders of the seven-member South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (Saarc) when they meet in Dhaka at the weekend.
Member countries, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, have been unable to resolve differences on three key issues, a sensitive list of products, rules of origin, and a compensation mechanism for the least developed countries whose economies could also be adversely affected.
But Indian Junior Minister E. Ahmed told reporters on Thursday that he was confident the agreement would be a reality by January 1.
"All delegations agree on the operationalisation of Safta on schedule," he said.
"There will be a clear message from the Saarc leaders that any pending issues must be resolved by the end of November by the committee of experts," he said.
The committee of experts is due to meet in Kathmandu in late November to try to reach an agreement on the three sticking points.
The Saarc member countries signed the Safta at the last Saarc Summit in Islamabad in January 2004, aimed at creating the world's biggest free trade area.
The deal is seen as key to achieving the Saarc objective of lifting the living standards of the region's 1.4 billion population, which includes 60 percent of the world's poor.