The United States said on Friday in Geneva that it would continue to play a leadership role in the Doha Round of global trade negotiations and try to push the round to a satisfactory conclusion within this year.

Many members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have expressed appreciation for U.S. leadership in the Doha negotiations, and they have encouraged Washington to continue to play that role, Peter Allgeier, U.S. ambassador to the Geneva-based body, told reporters.

"So we reiterated to them our strong commitment to conclude the Doha Round this year with an ambitious package, and we pledge to work with other members to do this," Allgeier said following a WTO meeting on U.S. trade policies, during which the U.S. answered questions from other WTO members.

The Doha Round of trade liberalization talks was launched in 2001 and due to be concluded by the end of this year. But WTO members are still trying to narrow their differences on such sticking issues as agriculture tariffs and market access for industrial products.

If the negotiations could be not be concluded within this year, it would be more difficult to strike deals in the future, as the U.S. president's trade promotion authority will expire on July 1, 2007 and no extension of that authority is expected.

U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman was reportedly said on Wednesday that he would push for a quick renewal of the president's trade promotion authority, which allows the White House to negotiate agreements that Congress must approve or reject but cannot change.

But commenting on that, Allgeier said such a possibility was very low.

"Every president wants to have the authority to negotiate a trade agreement," he said. "The question is what is the likelihood that we would have it. I think the consensus is that there is very small likelihood that we would have an extension."

"Our advice to our trading partners is that we all should operate under the assumption that it expires in July 1 2007. And you probably know there are steps before that we have to abide by in order to sign anything by that time," he said.

Source: Xinhua