New Delhi, Sep 3 - Hosting some 40 trade ministers from across the world for a two-day meeting here, India Thursday made a strong plea for an end to protectionism by some countries, even as it pushed for early resumption of multilateral trade talks.

In his opening remarks at the mini-ministerial meeting of the 153-member World Trade Organisation (WTO), India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma also asked the assembled dignitaries to remain conscious to the 2010 deadline to conclude the Doha round.

Sharma said the trade ministers had no doubt reaffirmed their commitment to the current round of trade talks ever since it was launched at the Qatari capital in November 2001. Meetings have since been held in Washington, London, Bali, Paris, L'Aquila and Singapore.

'Together, we need to work in this spirit, go beyond yet another reaffirmation and work collectively to provide guidance for a clear road map of multilateral engagement in the months ahead, remaining conscious of the 2010 timeline.'

The minister recalled that in the previous meetings, the leaders were also united in their views that sustaining trade and investment flows was critical for the future prosperity of developed and developing economies alike.

'They recognised that one of the main threats to a revival of trade flows is the rising protectionist pressures and continued delay in concluding the Doha round. Therefore, strengthening the multilateral trading system by concluding the Doha round at the earliest is vital, is an imperative.'

Sharma said the two-day meeting was certainly not the appropriate forum to talk specific issues in various areas of the negotiations as not all 153 WTO members were represented. This was best left for Geneva, the headquarters of the global trade body.

But he, nevertheless, called for the discussions to focus on the best ways to spark the multilateral negotiations and build a broad-based consensus so that they result in quick conclusion.