A method of expediting resource negotiation in a modified Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) reduces the number of messages exchanged for resource negotiation, thereby reducing the latencies involved in session setup. The method entails sending an INVITE message having a modified SIP header containing an indication that the originator's terminal seeks a fast session setup. The INVITE message further contains a list of all codecs available at the originator's terminal and how many of each type of media component are required. These codecs can be provided in an order of preference. The answerer (the called party in the case of VoIP) selects the codecs for the requested media types from the list of available codecs without engaging in a back-and-forth resource negotiation for the codecs. The result is that the session can be set up with merely 7 messages of which only 5 messages contribute to session setup, which provides quicker session setup than in the prior art.