The leaders from 21 member economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) will issue a statement calling for the resumption of the stalled Doha Round of trade talks when they meet here later this week, a senior Vietnamese official said Monday.

"The leaders will give top priority to the issue of Doha Round talks and will issue a standalone statement calling for restarting the talks," said Vietnamese Vice Minister Le Cong Phung, also chairman of the APEC Senior Officials Meeting (SOM).

He made the remarks when briefing the results of the just concluded two-day SOM meeting to finalize the agenda for the ministerial meeting and leaders meeting to be held on Nov. 15-16 and Nov. 18-19, respectively, in the Vietnamese capital.

All in the meeting agreed that the leaders would issue a standalone statement together with specific measures and suggestions on resuming the Doha Round, also dubbed the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), he said.

"This will be the last chance for APEC to save DDA from deadlock," he said, hoping that the APEC economic leaders meeting will facilitate the conclusion of DDA by 2007.

The Doha Round has been touted since 2001 as a way to boost the world economy and fight poverty, but it collapsed in July amid bitter disagreements over subsidies and tariffs for farm goods.

APEC currently has 21 members: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, China's Hong Kong, Chinese Taipei, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam. The chairmanship rotates among its members, with Vietnam holding the chair this year.

Source: Xinhua