Russia hopes to complete its negotiations to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) by the end of February, Russia's chief negotiator of the Economic Development and Trade Ministry Maxim Medvedkov said Friday.

Russia has yet to reach agreements with the United States, Switzerland, Colombia and Australia, said Medvedkov at a seminar on Russia's accession to the global trade body.

Minister of Economic Development and Trade German Gref will hold talks with representatives from these countries over the issue at the sidelines of next week's Davos World Economic Forum in Switzerland, said Medvedkov.

Russia hopes that those talks could bear fruit, Medvedkov added.

Analysts say the stance of the United States is critical to Russia's accession. At present, talks between the two countries focus on four key issues: market access to financial services, tariffs on airplane imports, agricultural subsidies and protection of intellectual property rights, with market access to financial services being the most contentious one.

Russia is one of a very few major economies in the world that remain outside the WTO. It applied for WTO membership in June 1993 and began negotiations to enter the 148-member global commerce body the next year.

It had repeatedly expressed the hope to finish all related negotiations by the end of last year, but failed to achieve that goal.

Source: Xinhua