Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and Mike Moore, director general of the World Trade Organization, agreed Tuesday to cooperate in launching a new round of trade liberalization talks, a Finance Ministry official said.
Squabbling among WTO members has delayed the talks for more than a year.
During their meeting at the ministry, Moore told Miyazawa the round should begin by the end of this year, the official said.
Citing his recent talks with trade ministers from 25 countries in Davos, Switzerland, Moore said he sensed "flexibility" on the part of the ministers toward launching a new WTO round, the official said.
To this end, Moore said he plans to draw a rough sketch of the new round by the end of July so that member countries can make a final push at a ministerial meeting scheduled in Qatar in November, the official said.
Miyazawa told Moore Japan is ready to support his efforts to avoid a repeat of the WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle in November 1999, during which Japan stood hard against increasing agriculture trade and against holding to a previous agreement on antidumping measures.
Other nations also stood firm on their pet issues.
Miyazawa did not give any indication that Tokyo is considering softening its stance.
Moore, a former New Zealand prime minister who took up the WTO post in September 1999, arrived in Japan Tuesday on a two-day visit to exchange views with top government policymakers over the launch of a new WTO round.
He was scheduled to meet with Foreign Minister Yohei Kono later in the day. He will hold separate meetings today with Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma and business leaders.