The Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization made "positive progress" but " tough tasks" still remain, said a Chinese trade official in Hong Kong Sunday.

"The meeting made progress on agricultural, non-agricultural, cotton and development issues," said Zhang Xiangchen, spokesman of the Chinese delegation to the Hong Kong meeting.

The week-long conference, which ended here Sunday evening, issued a declaration on the Doha Round talks of the international trade regime.

The 149 WTO members agreed on the dateline for elimination of agricultural export subsidy, the formula of tariff reduction for non-agricultural products, the duty-free and quota-free treatment for least developed countries.

Developed countries also agreed to eliminate cotton export subsidy in 2006, which will push forward the agricultural talks in the Doha Round, according to Zhang.

However, for the Doho Round of talks, it's only a partial progress and there are still "tough tasks" ahead, he noted.

Source: Xinhua