Apec trade ministers pledged strong support for global trade talks but revealed they were also examining the possibility of an Asia-Pacific free trade area, in a communique issued Friday.

Trade ministers from 21 Apec economies, collectively representing almost 50 percent of world trade, said there was an urgent need to advance the World Trade Organisation's stalled Doha round ofglobal trade talks.

The ministers, who have been meeting for two days in the northern Australian resort town of Cairns, felt so strongly about the need to push the WTO talks forward that they issued a separate statement on the issue.

"We will demonstrate the necessary political will and flexibility, and call upon other WTO members to do the same," it said.

The statement said an "ambitious and balanced" approach was needed for the talks to succeed.

"This means we need to make cuts in agricultural and industrial tariffs which result in real and substantial improvements in market access, and real and substantial reductions in trade-distorting agri-

cultural subsidies," it said.

But the trade ministers also ordered a report into establishing a Free Trade Area of the Asia-Pacific (FTAAP). US Trade Representative Susan Schwab said before the meeting that FTAAP talks were likely to intensify if Doha failed.

The trade ministers stressed that Doha remained their priority but a draft report on regional economic integration would be prepared for the Apec leaders' summit in Sydney in September.

"We agreed that the time is right to further examine the prospect for an FTAAP, including its implications," they said.

"We agreed that scope exists for more intensive activity across Apec's agenda in support of regional economicintegration."

The Doha round of World Trade Organisation (WTO) talks are stalled over trade tariffs and a row about agricultural subsidies granted to farmers by the United States and the EU.

Critical discussions between the so-called "G4" - the European Union and the United States on one side and Brazil and India on the other - aimed at reviving the talks collapsed two weeks ago in Germany.

New Zealand Trade Minister Phil Goff said that collapse was "a real setback" but welcomed news that the heads, or chairs, of key WTO negotiating groups were preparing new texts that will act as a basis for reviving the talks.

"One thing is certain, all of us will find things in those texts that we don't like but we have to support the chairs," he said.

"If members undermine the chairs and their process then it will be some years before we get another chance to get a deal. The stakes are too high forthat."

Goff said the tone of discussions among the trade minister in Cairns had been "sober".

"We all understand that if we don't get the breakthroughs this time then the round goes into hibernation for some years," he said, echoing comments that Schwab made Thursday.

Australia's trade minister Warren Truss said he hoped Apec's statement would give the WTO talks renewed momentum.

"This meeting makes it clear there's still a determination to succeed and willingness to put in effort to deliver good outcome," he said.