WASHINGTON, Oct 21: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Tuesday for a successful completion of the Doha trade talks round to send a “powerful signal” to the ailing world economy.

“We must seize this opportunity as an opportunity to revive and conclude the Doha round for the expansion of an open, global trading system,” Rice told a development summit here.

“A successful completion of Doha would send a powerful signal that the world’s response to this crisis will be fundamentally different than in the past,” during the Great Depression, she said.

During that period, she said in a keynote speech to

the summit, that “many countries, including the United States unfortunately, turned inward, adopted protectionist practices and deepened the crisis”.

US President George W. Bush was also due to address the gathering, officially named “White House Summit on International Development: Sustaining the New Era”.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Monday that “given the slowdown in the economy and the impact of the financial crisis on developing nations, it’s more important now than ever that developing nations continue to fulfil their commitments to support the aspirations of their people and that the developed nations help them do that.”

There have also been calls in Europe to rescue the drawn-out negotiations for a new world trade pact that collapsed in July in bitter disagreement.

The Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001, with the aim of liberalizing trade rules for the benefit of developing countries.

July’s summit collapsed over a disagreement on tariffs between the United States and India.—AFP