New Delhi, Sep 3 - Speaking on behalf of African nations, Egyptian Trade Minister Rachid Mohamed Rachid Thursday called for early resolution of issues concerning global cotton trade, which remained an important crop for several countries in the continent.

'African countries remain concerned that no significant progress has been made in some key issues of interest to them,' Rachid told the mini-ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) here.

'Suffice to mention that one of the most important issues for Africa, cotton was not even discussed during the July 2008 mini-ministerial,' said the minister who was among 40 trade ministers invited by India for the two-day conference.

'We call on to constructively resolve the cotton issue and other priorities to Africa in Doha negotiations.'

In fact, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy has called for a fairer global system on cotton trade and said resolving issues concerning this commodity remained the litmus test for the development agenda of the Doha round.