Manmohan Singh meets Brown on sidelines of G-20 summit

Pittsburgh, Sep 25 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today met British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on the sidelines of Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh, US.

A draft G20 document said on Friday that the world leaders promised to work as "quickly as possible" to conclude long-running world trade talks and have their top trade officials hold a stock-taking session by early next year.

"We remain committed to further trade liberalization. We are determined to seek an ambitious and balanced conclusion to the Doha development round in 2010," the leaders said in the draft communique obtained by a foreign news agency.

Leaders of the Group of 20, which groups major industrialized and developing countries, were gathered in Pittsburgh for talks aimed at putting the world on a path to more sustainable growth following the worst economic downturn in decades.

The final draft of their communique will be issued at the end of their two-day meeting

The Doha round, launched in late 2001 with the goal of help poor countries prosper through trade, is already the longest set of world trade negotiations since the modern rules-based trading system began.

After nearly eight years of negotiation, World Trade Organization members still have not reached agreement on core formulas, known in trade jargon as "modalities," for cutting agricultural and industrial tariffs and reducing trade-distorting farm subsidies. (ANI)