Members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) are committed to realizing the negotiation targets set in Hong Kong last December, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy said in Geneva on Tuesday.

Addressing a conference of the Trade Negotiations Committee, Lamy said he has been pursuing contacts with a wide range of WTO members, at various levels and in various locations, since the beginning of the year.

He said one clear message he has got is that "there is widespread commitment to making good on what was agreed" at the WTO's Sixth Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, which was held from Dec. 13 to 18 to advance the stalled Doha round of global trade talks.

The Kong Kong conference ended with a Ministerial Declaration, which includes a number of firm deadlines, including one on April 30 for agreeing to modalities in Agriculture and NAMA (Non- Agriculture Market Access).

The Kong Kong conference also set a target for ending the whole round of talks and reaching a comprehensive agreement by the end of 2006.

According to the WTO head, WTO members share an intention to move ahead across the whole of the Doha Development Agenda, the formal name for the Doha round.

And all the negotiators understand that they will have to move from their current positions and they are willing to do so by moving "in concert", he said.

He stressed that agriculture and NAMA remain the most important and difficult area for negotiators.

He added, however, there are other issues which also need to be agreed upon for a final agreement, including Services, Rules, TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights), Environment, Trade Facilitation, and so on.

He said, as WTO director-general, he has a lot of work to do, while WTO delegations in Geneva also have to intensify their contacts with each other, as well as with their own capitals, to ensure an agreement by the end of the year.

Source: Xinhua