Singapore - Trade ministers of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum on Wednesday agreed to shun protectionism and step up their efforts to conclude a new global trade pact by 2010.

"We are very conscious that if protectionism is not controlled, this could be a severe setback to our growth prospects," Singapore Trade Minister Lim Hng Kiang said after hosting a two-day meeting with his colleagues from 21 APEC countries.

The trade ministers said in a statement that the fight against protectionism was "a key thrust ... to restore trade and spur economic recovery."

They agreed to conduct regular reviews of measures taken by APEC economies in response to the global economic crisis.

Peer pressure would help "to keep protectionism at bay," Lim said.

Policy responses to the economic crisis should be designed to minimize distortion of trade and investment flows, the ministers said.

In their statement, they affirmed their commitment to bring the often-stalled Doha round of world trade negotiations to "a successful and speedy conclusion" by the end of 2010.

With 153 members in the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is conducting the talks, it would be difficult to reach an agreement through only multilateral meetings, the ministers said. Therefore, all APEC members urged additional bilateral and regional dialogues to hasten the pace of talks.

"We gave our negotiators maximum flexibility in their discussions so that they can narrow positions as much as possible," Lim said.

Launched in 2001, the Doha talks have repeatedly been hampered by disputes between rich and developing nations.

The trade ministers agreed that in the post-economic crisis world it would be necessary to spread the benefits of growth more broadly within societies, Lim said.

"There is a strong consensus that we need to pursue a more inclusive growth model going forward," he said.

APEC's member economies - including the United States, China, Japan and Russia - also plan to strengthen integration in the Asia-Pacific to position the region for a strong and sustained recovery.

The APEC member economies account for more than half of the global gross domestic product.

The trade ministers were joined by WTO Director General Pascal Lamy, who was scheduled to launch the WTO World Trade Report 2009 later Wednesday. (dpa)