JAKARTA -- Asia-Pacific leaders, moving toward a landmark pact on free trade, spent Monday preparing for it with a round of top-level meetings that touched on human rights, bilateral squabbles and the North Korean nuclear issue.


The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum which opens Tuesday, will endorse a vision of free trade in a region that accounts for half of world commerce. The 18 APEC members are debating plans to make the region a free-trade zone by 2020 and are expected to agree on some kind of timetable towards that end in nearby Bogor on Tuesday. But before the adoption of the key accord, a series of bi-lateral meetings Monday gave leaders a chance to press each other on important economic and political disputes, ranging from trade and rights to weapons proliferation.


U.S. President Bill Clinton, hoping to regain his footing after the massive Republican electoral victory, spent the day in meetings with Asian leaders which he hoped would shift attention from his flagging performance to Asian security and bilateral economic issues. In a meeting with China's President Jiang Zemin, the U.S. president pushed human rights concerns and raised a confrontation over alleged Chinese missile sales to Pakistan -- an issue described by the Americans as a "potential time bomb" in relations.


There was no sign Beijing gave ground on either issue.


Later in talks with South Korean President Kim Young-sam and Japanese Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, Clinton stressed the importance of the new nuclear accord with Pyongyang.


The three leaders hailed the pact as changing the security landscape of North Asia.


"They strongly endorsed the ... agreed framework for settling the nuclear issue, which opens the way to a new era of stability and increased prosperity in the region," a joint statement after the meeting said.


Clinton also emphasised trade in his talks with Murayama, saying that more trade progress was needed and stressing deadlocked car-industry talks.


U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor warned the Japanese he intended to open up the auto industry "one way or another."


Before arriving in Jakarta, Clinton stopped in Manila on Sunday where Philippine President Fidel Ramos tried to comfort him for his election woes with the Bible. Quoting a verse from the gospel according to Luke, Ramos said he "tells us that no prophet is accepted in his hometown." It was the first visit by a U.S. president since America left its bases there two years ago.


Despite the busy round of top-level talks, Indonesia's internal political situation threatened to distract attention from the upcoming conference.


Twenty-nine East Timorese students have been outside the U.S. Embassy since Saturday, demanding freedom for their jailed independence-struggle hero, Xanana Gusmao.


Clinton told reporters he had been assured by the Indonesian government it would not punish them.


The dissidents are refusing to leave unless Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher or Indonesia's President Suharto and his Foreign Minister Ali Alatas meet them.


They told reporters they would take "harder steps" if their demands were not met, possibly including a request for political asylum that could be awkward for Clinton and his host President Suharto.


"We have come this far, so why should we give in now," one student shouted through embassy railings.


In East Timor itself, Indonesian police arrested 80 people after riots that flared again Monday when 600 stone-throwing students clashed with police.


"Tension is very high. Anything can trigger violence," said Armindo Maia, vice-rector of East Timor University.


Demonstrators demanding independence from Indonesia, which has ruled East Timor with an iron hand for nearly 20 years, ran wild in the center of Dili over the weekend. It brought political and human rights concerns, often thrust aside by the region as its young economies boom, to center stage.