Australia's most important economic and strategic interests lie in Asia, Prime Minister John Howard said Tuesday as he outlined a "shared future" between his nation and the region.

"Australia in my view is a country whose dominant interests in the years ahead will be found in this region," Howard said in a speech to a business lunch during a one-day visit to Singapore.

"This is our part of the world. This is the part of the world to which we most immediately relate not only in a geographic sense but increasingly also in a strategic and economic sense."

Howard said Australians and Asians were "friends".

"We don't always agree. We have our own way of doing things. We have our own distinct identity. But we come to the region with immense goodwill and above all else a commitment to a shared future," he said.

Howard emphasised, however, that Australia would not cut its historic ties to Europe or abandon its close relationship with the United States in favour of pursuing an allAsia economic and foreign policy.