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Hope for pact at trade conf

BANGKOK: Negotiators at a major UN trade conference expressed confidence on Thursday that they had reached agreement on a programme designed to help reduce poverty through trade.

But the plan they looked set to agree on will have no teeth, committing no one to anything and leaving the big issues on the table to be resolved later by the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The UN Conference on Trade and Development, bringing together 160 countries, is trying to avoid the disagreements that led to the collapse of the WTO's summit in Seattle last year in street protests and acrimony.

Delegates said that the atmosphere was much better in Bangkok, largely because UNCTAD, which seeks to promote development in poor countries through trade, has attempted to be a sounding board for ideas on how to shape trade in the globalised era.

The WTO, in contrast, was attempting a bigger task Ñ launching a new round of trade talks that would lead to a treaty that could be enforced.ÑAP