WASHINGTON (AFP) - A key World Bank committee appealed to all countries, developed and developping, to take an active role in WTO multilateral trade liberalization talks scheduled to wrap by the end of the year.
The Bank's policy-setting Development Committee also urged donors to move toward an internationally agreed-upon objective of making available 0.7 percent of their gross national product as overseas development aid.
The committee described debt sustainability for poor countries "as an essential underpinning for growth."
But while there are several concrete proposals on strengthening debt relief currently under discussion at both the Bank and the International Monetary Fund, none was mentioned in the statement.
On the Doha round of trade talks, the committee stressed "the importance of translating recently agreed WTO frameworks into tangible results."
The World Trade Organization's ruling General Council in early August salvaged floundering trade talks with the adoption of an accord setting out the path ahead for the deadlocked round.
The breakthrough was aimed mainly at eventually securing a cut in agriculture subsidies -- notably in the United States and the European Union -- and lowering barriers to the multi-billion-dollar farm trade.
Prior to the agreement, the Doha round, launched at a WTO ministerial meeting in the Qatari capital in December 2001, had been close to collapse in disputes over the pace at which farm subsidies would be eliminated.
With the process restored, the World Bank committee on Saturday urged "all countries, developing and developed, to participate fully in the negotiations."
It also called on both the IMF and the World Bank "to continue to support work to this end and to help developing countries assess the impact and provide additional support to address potential adjustment costs."
The text was a reference to social and economic disruptions that can occur as key sectors are opened up to international competition.