LIMA (Reuters) - Asian and American leaders urged support on Saturday for a global free trade deal to offset a deepening world economic crisis but big steps forward could be tricky as the United States makes the transition to a new president.

U.S. President George W. Bush, who leaves office in January, China's Hu Jintao, and Japan's Taro Aso were huddling with other world powers for the second time in a week in a scramble to prevent a sharp global recession.

The occasion this weekend in Peru was the annual summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, which groups 21 economies including Russia, Indonesia, Australia, Canada and Mexico, and accounts for more than half of global output.

"It's important for us to continue to work together in this time of economic turmoil," Bush said on Saturday after meeting with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Bush, who is on his last scheduled trip abroad before handing over power to President-elect Barack Obama January 20, called on his APEC peers to make a last-minute push for the long-running Doha round before the end of 2008 and reject protectionism.

Nine APEC countries are part of the Group of 20 leading economies, which met last week and endorsed the goal of a reaching a deal on key farm and manufactured goods trade issues in the Doha round by the end of next month.

The G20 also pushed for government spending or tax incentives to spur economies, and for stronger oversight of the global financial industry.

On Sunday, the World Trade Organization's Pascal Lamy will chair a meeting of senior officials and ambassadors to the WTO in Geneva to assess the chances of reaching a deal.

OBAMA IN THE WINGS

Bush wants to bolster his legacy on trade, though U.S. Trade Representative Susan Schwab said that even if a breakthrough were made in Geneva on nagging disputes, a final deal would bear the imprint of Obama.

Any advances by the end of this year "would lay the groundwork for the next administration to move ahead with Doha, without locking in specifics," Schwab said on Friday.

Leaders at the APEC meeting, being held in a fortified defense compound in Peru's capital, Lima, were expected to issue a series of non-binding declarations, including a final one on Sunday, urging swift responses to the global economic crisis.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak repeated his government's mantra, drawn from the lessons of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, that measures to combat today's troubles must be "preemptive, decisive and sufficient."

He said APEC members should avoid lifting trade barriers at all costs as unemployment rises, growth slows and financial bailouts pile up.

Lee and other leaders arrived early for the summit and addressed a parallel gathering of business executives from global companies, such as lender HSBC and miner Freeport McMoRan, that have been caught in the downdraft.

"Nations must not make a regression to protectionism," he said. "Protectionism leads to protectionism and results in a further slowdown of the global economy."

Lee also said emerging markets need to have better access to larger sources of emergency funding, amid grow demands for a fresh round of fund-raising for the International Monetary Fund.

"There needs to be expanded support from the major economies to emerging economies that have difficulty in procuring foreign currency liquidity," Lee said.

(Additional reporting by Chris Buckley, Doug Palmer and Chisa Fujioka; Writing by Terry Wade; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Bill Trott)

By Paul Eckert and David Alexander

Publié le 22 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Reuters