Major WTO members have agreed that more ministerial meetings are needed this year to seek a breakthrough of the long-delayed Doha Round of global trade talks, Swiss Economics Minister Doris Leuthard said on Saturday.

"Possibly, a first meeting could even take place before the G20meeting in April," Leuthard said following an informal ministerial gathering of 18 major WTO members on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos.

Two other ministerial meetings could take place in June and July respectively, Leuthard told a joint press conference held with WTO chief Pascal Lamy.

Lamy confirmed that more ministerial meetings are needed for a Doha Round breakthrough in 2009.

"We need to gather ministers. I've been given a mandate to do that, if necessary," he said.

According to Leuthard, trade ministers present at Saturday's meeting all agree that "trade is part of the solution" to the current economic crisis.

"The opening-up of markets is the best we can do to fight the crisis," she said.

The 18 WTO members include the United States, the European Union, Japan, Australia, Brazil, India and China, the so-called Group of Seven most influential parties in the Doha Round.

They expressed a strong commitment to finalize the Doha negotiations, on the basis of progress made in 2008, Leuthard said.

However, Lamy warned that challenges remain for the Doha negotiations, notably the rising sentiments of protectionism amid the global economic recession.

"Ministers are worried because they are under domestic political pressure and what they hear at home is that trade should go to the toilet ..." he said.

"Throwing trade out with the bath water is a big mistake ... and trade opening is none of the causes of the crisis," he stressed.

Lamy also noted that a global trade deal could have a multiplier effect on any economic recovery and offer confidence to the private sector.

(Xinhua News Agency February 1, 2009)