Australia PM says not optimistic about Doha talks

HANOI, Nov 18: Australian Prime Minister John Howard said today prospects for resuming global trade talks looked bleak but Asia-Pacific leaders should do everything they can to end the impasse.

''It doesn't look very optimistic at the present time,'' Howard told business leaders on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Hanoi.

Despite what he called a relatively generous offer from Washington, there remained a ''significant gap'' between the positions of the United States, Europe and some other major trading countries.

The Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks collapsed in July, mainly due to an impasse over farm subsidies among six key players -- APEC members the United States, Japan and Australia, and the European Union, India and Brazil.

''We should take the opportunity of this APEC gathering to re-assert the importance of the Doha round and re-assert our belief that achieving progress on the multilateral front is a goal for all of us,'' Howard told hundreds of business executives attending the APEC CEO summit.

REUTERS

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