WTO agree free trade agenda

DOHA, Qatar -- Delegates from 142 countries have agreed the agenda for a new round of World Trade Organization trade talks.

The agenda was thrashed out over six days in Doha and was not certain of approval until a full session of the meeting on Wednesday.

It means a new round of free trade talks -- that will take years to complete -- can begin with the ambition of removing restrictions on international trade and boosting the world economy.

India had threatened to wreck agreement in Doha by objecting to competition clauses in the draft text that it feared would harm its textiles industry.

Diplomats said India dropped its opposition on the understanding that the issue would be discussed in a separate WTO committee.

Agreement in Doha was crucial to the WTO's credibility after an earlier attempt to adopt the agenda failed in Seattle two years ago.

That meeting was held against a backdrop of violent anti-globalisation demonstrations -- one of the first times the phenomenon that now regularly accompanies international get-togethers had been seen.

Although the talks will not begin for two years delegates hope the agreement will give an immediate shot of confidence to the flagging global economy.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick told delegates: "Today the members of the World Trade Organization have sent a powerful signal to the world. We have removed the stain of Seattle."

The declaration sets out topics to be covered in a round of back-and-forth trade talks that last years. The last one took more than seven years, ending in 1993.

The European Union had also threatened to scupper the deal by holding out until late in negotiations on whether subsidies on farms should be phased out or retained.

France, which has a strong farming lobby, wanted to remove from the text reference to phasing out subsidies.

A compromise wording was reached and after the French delegation had talked to Paris, the EU dropped its objections.