The Barack Obama administration will move quickly to address issues related to the parliamentary approval of free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama, Yonhap News Agency reported Tuesday, quoting the office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

In "President Obama's 2009 Trade Agenda," a report delivered to Congress last week and released Monday, the USTR said the administration "will promptly, but responsibly, address the issues surrounding the Colombia, Korea and Panama Free Trade Agreements."

The agenda also said that the Obama administration will move "relatively quickly" on the Panama FTA and then to the FTAs with Colombia and South Korea.

The former Bush administration had prioritized the Colombia FTA despite concerns over alleged labor violence there, noting that Colombian goods enjoy tariff exemptions in the U.S. market without reciprocity.

The USTR's report comes just days before a congressional hearing Thursday to approve U.S. Trade Representative nominee Ron Kirk, former mayor of Dallas, who will play a pivotal role in the Obama administration's handling of the pending FTAs.

The agenda also said that the Obama administration "shall also review the implementation of our FTAs and bilateral investment treaties (BITs) to ensure that they advance the public interest."

"The Bush administration has left a legacy of numerous pending agreements and negotiations," it said. "We will conduct extensive outreach and discourse with the public on whether these agreements appropriately advance the interests of the United States and our trading partners."

The agenda, the first of its kind since Obama's inauguration in January, comes after a group of U.S. congressmen Friday urged the administration to move quickly to present the pending free trade agreements as a way to help revive the slumping U.S. economy.

In a news conference, the congressman urged the administration to "engage aggressively in trade and that includes trade agreements," hoping the administration will soon present the FTAs to Congress for deliberation.

The Obama administration has been distancing itself from the FTAs amid fears in the Democratic Congress that they will undercut jobs in the worst recession in decades.

South Korea's National Assembly is also delaying deliberating the Korea-U.S. FTA, citing growing protectionist sentiments in the U.S.