WASHINGTON, July 13: A top US trade official will travel to Geneva next week for a key World Trade Organization meeting and other talks with US trading partners, the Bush administration said on Friday.

Deputy US Trade Representative Peter Allgeier will participate in a meeting of the WTO Trade Negotiating Committee, which is responsible for bringing the current round of world trade talks to a conclusion by January 2005.

It will be the first meeting of the TNC with senior capital-based representatives since the world trade talks were launched last fall in Doha, Qatar.

Allgeier also will hold talks with regional groups, such as the African Group, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations and the Group of Latin American and Caribbean countries.

He also will meet with incoming WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand and hold bilateral meetings with a number of trading partners.

The Geneva meetings come as the White House still has not won final congressional approval of a trade promotion authority bill it needs to bring the WTO talks to a successful close.

All US trade negotiations are bogged down because strong US leadership is not possible without trade promotion authority, Frank Vargo, vice president for international economic affairs, at the National Association of Manufacturers, said in a statement.

Talks between the Senate and the House of Representatives on a final trade promotion authority bill are expected to begin soon after weeks of delay in both chambers on appointing negotiators to work on that task.

President George W. Bush has urged lawmakers to send him a final trade bill by August.—Reuters