July 14, 2006	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Sani 17, 1427

GENEVA, July 13: Key players from the World Trade Organisation are to meet during the G8 summit in Russia to try to break the deadlock in the Doha Round talks on reducing barriers to commerce, WTO sources said on Thursday.

The meeting will be held on Monday, on the sidelines of the July 15-17 summit in Saint Petersburg, and WTO chief Pascal Lamy is scheduled to take part, said sources at the global body.

Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, which are considered heavyweight developing countries in the 149-nation WTO, are set to hold talks with the members of the G8.

The Group of Eight comprises WTO members Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States, as well as Russia, which is still waiting to join the global trade body.

The WTO-related talks in Saint Petersburg come just two weeks after the organisation’s members failed in Geneva to settle their differences and revive their floundering Doha Round negotiations.

The round, which was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, is meant to yield a treaty removing barriers to trade and harnessing commerce to increase development in poor countries.

The round was originally meant to end in 2004, but the target was later pushed back to December 2006 because of enduring splits.—AFP