IANS

New Delhi, Sep 4: The 153 members of World Trade Organisation (WTO) will resume formal talks at its headquarters in Geneva later this month to conclude the Doha round of trade talks after a "breakthrough" here, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Friday.

"There has been a breakthrough in negotiations. The Delhi meeting has managed to break the impasse," said a visibly-pleased Sharma, who hosted a two-day informal meeting of representatives of some 40 members of the WTO since Thursday.

"The negotiators will meet in Geneva on Sep 14 to re-engage and restart the Doha negotiation process," the trade minister said at a press conference at the Taj Palace Hotel here.

During the two-day meeting, which was proposed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the London Summit of G20 in April, it was evident some key differences remained in defining a clear path to conclude the multilateral trade talks.

At the same time, there was also a realisation from all quarters that such differences needed to be resolved for a healthy multilateral trading system, as also because of the 2010 deadline for Doha round, diplomats said.

Key stakeholders who attended the two-day meeting here included US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Brazilian Foreign Trade Minister Celso Amorim, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.

The Doha Development Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001.