Musharraf: Pakistan Will Resolve Kashmir Dispute

(AP Video)

Swiss President Joseph Deiss, who also serves as Switzerland's Economics Minister, invited around 25 ministers to meet Friday to discuss the issues that led to the collapse of the World Trade Organization (news - web sites)'s ministerial meeting in Cancun, Mexico, in September.

The meeting was being held on the sidelines of this year's economic forum in the Swiss resort of Davos, where the agenda also included the war on terrorism, the U.S. economy and how to boost democracy around the world.

"The purpose of the meeting is to take stock of the process and to look for ways to move this process forward in 2004," said Deiss' spokesman, Manuel Sager.

The WTO's round of trade liberalization negotiations is supposed to lead to a binding treaty by the end of the year, but talks have bogged down for months and that deadline is slipping away.

WTO Director-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, who also is attending, said he hoped the meeting would give guidance to diplomats, who restart their work at the WTO headquarters in Geneva next month.

"I would like to get the sense of urgency from the ministers," he said. "I want the groups to concentrate on the real issues, and I really want to know what are the issues."

The Cancun meeting collapsed in large part because of differing positions on agriculture, which saw the rise of a major group of developing countries determined to force big cuts to farm subsidies in rich nations.

"I live in a country that is becoming very, very competitive in agriculture and the more we get improvements in competition the higher are the fences to access," Brazilian (news - web sites) Trade Minister Luiz Fernando Furlan told a panel on Thursday.

Also Thursday, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft (news - web sites) urged nations that rallied against terrorism after the Sept. 11 hijack attacks to unite again to fight corruption, which is costing the world economy more than $2 trillion every year.

Ashcroft attacked government officials who pocket payoffs and deprive their people of money for better roads, cleaner water and more modern schools.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, meanwhile, told the meeting of politicians and business leaders that his government would prosecute any scientists who sold nuclear secrets.

"We are carrying out a thorough investigation of any proliferation that may have been done by any individual for their personal financial gain," he said. "We will deal with them as anti-state elements," he said.

He added that Pakistan's own nuclear weapons are "under total custodial control" and the Pakistani government would never be involved in passing on nuclear secrets.

Musharraf said his government had been fighting all forms of terrorism, which was behind two recent assassination attempts against him.

"I'm treading on a lot of toes, and that has led to these extremist attacks on me, but I call them occupational hazards," he said. "And I also believe that I haven't outlived my nine lives as yet. I have a number of lives left still."

On the business side, leaders tackled the thorny issue of how to resist stock market pressure to distort company earnings and considered the promise and pitfalls of doing business in China.

Speeches from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites), Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski and King Abdullah of Jordan were on the forum's schedule Friday. Ashcroft also was to discuss the future of the war against terrorism with a panel that includes Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, and Commerce Secretary Donald Evans was to discuss the U.S. economy's potential effect on growth worldwide.

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