Vietnam can complete bilateral negotiations with the United States on its entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the first quarter of next year, a Vietnamese ambassador said.

"I believe in the conclusion of the Vietnam-US negotiations in the first quarter of 2006. Vietnam's new commitments offered to the United States (which happened ahead the 6th WTO Ministerial Conference in China's Hong Kong in mid-December) are much higher than the average level," local newspaper Pioneer on Tuesday quoted Ngo Quang Xuan, Vietnamese ambassador to the WTO in Geneva,as saying.

Vietnam and the United States have agreed to quickly hold a new negotiation round to solve the remaining issues, he said, noting that his country has kept on proposing the United States consider Vietnam's low economic development level when requiring it to open up its markets.

To date, Vietnam has wrapped up bilateral negotiations on its WTO accession with 23 partners, and will have to do the same with the last five ones, namely the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Dominica and New Zealand.

Source: Xinhua