Japan, Australia to hold bilateral trade talks in Sydney.

SYDNEY, Nov. 8 Kyodo

Japan and Australia will hold bilateral talks ahead of next week's informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Sydney, Australian Trade Minister Mark Vaile said Friday.

WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi and 25 trade ministers, 17 of which are from developing countries, will discuss key issues of the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations at the one-day meeting next Friday.

The informal mini-ministerial meetings are an important part of preparing the Doha agenda and each country's various positions for the fifth full ministerial meeting of 145 countries, which will be held in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003, Vaile told reporters in Sydney.

The Doha round aims to generate more fairness and equity in market access, particularly agriculture, the minister said.

''Australia is the key proponent of change in agricultural trade rules across the world, obviously to improve the circumstance and opportunities for our farmers, but we also have a deeply held belief that the current rules are grossly unfair to developing countries,'' he said.

As Australia's largest trading partner, it was crucial that bilateral discussions are held with Japan at every ministerial meeting, Vaile said, adding that both Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Takeo Hiranuma and Foreign Minister Yoriko Kawaguchi are expected to attend next week's meeting.

During Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's visit to Australia in May, the two countries floated the idea of negotiating a free trade agreement, he recalled.

''Different Japanese departments were a bit concerned about that and pulled back. But we are currently discussing with them a trade and economic agreement which still is an enhancement of what we are doing, putting a better structure around the economic relationship,'' Vaile said.

The most important issue to be discussed at the meeting is the developing world's access to affordable medicines, particularly those used to treat tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, Vaile said.

''It is a crucial issue for the developing world. The intellectual property of these drugs is obviously held in developed or wealthier economies and there are strict rules,'' he said.

''There needs to be some compromises reached to accommodate reasonable access to those medicines for developing countries without compromising the intellectual property rights those countries have,'' the minister said.

Security for the meeting has been a concern for the government as previous WTO meetings were marred by violent protests. Police expect up to 10,000 antiglobalization demonstrators to flock to the New South Wales (NSW) state capital.

The venue for the meeting was moved to Homebush in the city's west after police expressed concern a previous location in the upscale suburb of Double Bay would incite protesters.

The Trade Ministry, government agencies and the state police had been working together on a ''significant security effort,'' Vaile said.

''I have every confidence that the NSW police will provide adequate security for not only our Australian delegation but in particular for all our visiting delegations from overseas,'' he said.

Trade ministers from South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, India, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Columbia, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, the European Union, Switzerland, Egypt, Kenya, Algeria, Lesotho, Senegal and South Africa, will participate in next week's meeting at the Olympic Park Novotel hotel.