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The speaker of the House, John A. Boehner, said Wednesday that he and his fellow Republican leaders found “common ground’’ with President Obama during a lunch at the White House, but failed to reach any specific agreements on how to cut spending to reduce the federal deficit.

With the White House preparing to send a free-trade agreement with South Korea to Congress for its approval, Mr. Boehner said the two sides believed that trade was one area where they might find compromise. He said he told the president that the House was ready to take up not only the South Korea pact, but also two others that have been stalled — one with Colombia and the other with Panama.

But the White House has said it is seeking amendments to the Colombia and Panama agreements before it will move forward.

Mr. Obama, who vowed to do a better job of reaching out to Republicans after the drubbing his party took in the November midterms, invited the House Republican leaders — Mr. Boehner; Representative Eric Cantor, the House majority leader; and Representative Kevin McCarthy, the Republican whip — in for a wide-ranging discussion that focused largely on the economy. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and the White House chief of staff, William M. Daley, also attended.

Mr. Cantor called it “a fairly robust conversation about the need for all of us to work together to send a signal that we’re serious about cutting spending.”

“We had agreement on that,” Mr. Cantor added. “I guess the particulars and the details will be where the disagreements may lie.’’

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