SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday called for reviving global trade liberalisation talks so that developing countries can use trade to lift millions out of poverty.

Annan, making his first trip to the Dominican Republic, said the World Trade Organisation's long-struggling Doha round of trade talks were in "crisis".

"I used the word crisis - I didn't say it's dead," Annan said in a speech at the presidential palace in the capital of Santo Domingo. "I hope it can be revived, because most of the countries would want to trade themselves out of poverty rather than live on handouts."

The global trade liberalisation deal, which emphasises lowering commercial barriers for developing countries such as the Dominican Republic, collapsed during last month's WTO meeting in Geneva after five years of negotiations between rich and poor nations.

The European Union accused the United States of derailing the talks - named for the Qatari capital where negotiations were launched in 2001 - by failing to offer deeper cuts in subsidies paid to farmers. The US blamed Brussels' failure to ease access to its agricultural market for foreign goods.
Standing next to Dominican President Leonel Fernandez, Annan praised the country's efforts to reduce poverty by stressing community involvement and technology.

The Dominican anti-poverty programme was designed to meet UN-mandated goals of curbing hunger, AIDS, infant mortality, and environmental devastation while boosting education, maternal health and gender equality by 2015.

Annan arrived in the Caribbean nation from neighbouring Haiti, where he called for strengthening the troubled country's police force and extending the current UN security operation for another 12 months.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot