Geneva - The head of the World Trade Organization on Tuesday called for the leaders of the world's richest nations to make a firm commitment to fight trade protectionism at their upcoming summit in Italy.

"Keep pushing against protectionism," Director General Pascal Lamy said in Geneva.

The social impact of the financial and economic had not yet peaked, he predicted. As job losses continued to climb, calls for protectionist measures to defend domestic industry would likely increase.

"In political terms, the worst of the crisis is still to come," Lamy told reporters in Geneva, adding that this would be the "stress test" for the WTO's rules-based system for trade.

He called for renewed efforts to complete the Doha Development Round of trade talks, launched in Qatar in 2001, which have been bogged down over differences between developed and developing nations on market access, subsidies and tariffs.

A completion of the round could be possible by the end of next year, the WTO's chief has said.

Lamy was speaking towards the close of a review of the WTO's Aid for Trade programme, which aims to help developing nations improve their capacities to benefit from liberalization and cushion the blow of opening their markets.

Trade finance was also an issue of concern, Lamy said, as it was the oil behind commerce. International financial institutions have warned that the credit crunch has caused such loans to dry up, particularly for developing nations.

As the poorer countries had a greater reliance on exports and weaker social support networks, Lamy said it was important to ensure their trade volumes did not slip further causing larger economic declines.

The WTO forecast says global trade will drop by 10 per cent in 2009 compared with last year. A recent report showed that the worst forms of protectionism have largely been avoided in the last few months though smaller-scale measures have been taken by various economies.

German officials have said a commitment to free trade will be embodied in the final declaration issued by the Group of Eight (G8)

The meeting plans to issue a strong commitment to complete the Doha round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations to liberalize trade, which began in 2001.(dpa)