GENEVA, Jan 24: Developed and developing country members of the World Trade Organization were divided Wednesday on who should head a key committee charged with overseeing multilateral trade talks, sources close to the WTO said.

The trade negotiating committee is to convene January 28, when its first order of business will be to choose a chairman. The committee is responsible for organizing a new round of trade liberalization talks that was agreed upon at the WTO ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar last November.

Leading industrialized powers, notably the United States and the European Union, want the WTO’s director general to head the committee, a position that also has the backing of Ecuador, Uruguay and Thailand, the sources said.

If that option garners consensus, the committee would be under the chairmanship of WTO Director General Mike Moore until September 1, when he is to be replaced by Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand.

Moore on Wednesday made it clear he does not want the committee job, insisting that his appointment would not be good for the WTO.

A group of developing countries, anxious to avoid investing too much authority in the director general, wants to have the committee chairman named from among the permanent ambassadors to the WTO.

Such a candidate would be more dependent on the WTO general council, an executive body that groups delegates from all 144 WTO members.

That approach is supported notably by Pakistan and a number of African nations.

The post-Doha talks on lowering global trade barriers are due to last until January 2005.—AFP