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LONDON : Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Saturday there had been "real movement" in recent weeks in long-stalled efforts to reach a new global trade deal.
Rudd, on the latest stop of a European tour, was speaking at a summit of centre-left international leaders near London also attended by World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy and EU trade commissioner Peter Mandelson.
"What has been encouraging in terms of our discussions with Pascal Lamy and the EU trade representative is the extent to which there has been real movement in recent days," Rudd told journalists.
"What is remarkable in this gathering is that you have parties here traditionally from the centre and centre-left, developed and developing countries, in one voice saying that the world economy needs a positive outcome soon on the Doha Development Round."
Rudd said a deal was "within our grasp", but warned time was running out.
"What is required now is political will on the part of all of us to bring that to conclusion and this will be hard work which needs to be done literally in the course of the next few weeks."
The Doha round of talks, launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 and aimed at liberalising world trade and boosting development, were scheduled to be wrapped up by 2004 but have stalled amid bitter disputes between developed and emerging economies.
Developing nations have been pushing for greater access to agricultural markets in the industrialised world while richer nations are in return seeking better access for their manufactured goods.
Some WTO members still see hope for a deal this year, but a WTO source said a meeting planned to take place this month in Geneva has been cancelled.
The source added that some headway had been made in discussions on reducing barriers to agricultural trade, making a ministerial meeting possible in May.
Rudd was criticised by his opponents earlier this week after greeting US President George W. Bush with a playful military-style salute at a NATO summit in Bucharest.
- AFP /ls
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