Yahoo Japan Corp. and eBay Inc. agreed Tuesday to team up on online auctions and plan to launch services next year that will make it easier to make purchases via the Internet from the United States and Japan.

Yahoo said by March, Japanese will be able to bid for items on eBay through the Yahoo auction site in Japan. By the middle of the year, it will set up a site that will allow Americans to bid for items auctioned on Yahoo Japan through eBay.

The deal will facilitate "cross-border trading" and invigorate the online auction market, Yahoo said in a statement. In online auctions, consumers put up items they want to sell and get offers through the Internet from prospective buyers.