DHAKA (AFP) - Officials of 38 of the world's least-developed countries went into an extended meeting to hammer out a common agenda for WTO negotiations.
The countries are due at the end of three days of talks here Monday to release a "Dhaka Declaration" on their platform for September's World Trade Organisation conference in Mexico.
"There were differences on many issues, but I don't want to discuss that. Rather we are almost at the final stage of a common negotiating position," Bangladeshi Commerce Secretary Sohel Ahmed told reporters on Sunday.
"We had to work an extra three hours to hammer out the common ground and I hope, God willing, the ministers will approve it tomorrow."
Major points agreed upon in the Dhaka Declaration include more market access in the developed world for poorer countries and the right of movement for labour based on their skills, a ministry source said.
A press conference expected Sunday was put off as last-minute deliberations continued.
The meeting, in which 23 countries are represented at the ministerial level, will end Monday with the declaration in the presence of Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia.
Bangladeshi Commerce Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury earlier said there was "good" progress in the talks.
"But you cannot have 100 percent agreement and we hope to come out with the best results," he told AFP on the sidelines of the meeting.
Chowdhury Saturday said least-developed countries needed to ensure they "come out happy" from the September 10-14 World Trade Organisation conference in the Mexican resort of Cancun.
The gathering of the world's ministers in Mexico will follow a similar meeting in November 2001 in the Qatari capital Doha, while the Dhaka deliberations were taking place before a backdrop of dwindling foreign aid to Bangladesh and other least-developed countries.
"I think we can safely say that the LDCs will have a stronger negotiating position backed by the political decision of the Dhaka Declaration at the Cancun meeting," one senior meeting source told AFP.
Bangladesh, which took over leadership of the least-developed countries bloc from Tanzania, Saturday urged poorer nations to develop their export bases.
The United Nations designates 49 countries as least-developed, most of them in Africa. The criteria for membership include having gross domestic products of less than 900 dollars per capita, weak health and educational assets, and high economic vulnerability.
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