* Doha talks "simply must conclude this year," PM says
* Australia eager for TransPacific Partnership deal
By Doug Palmer
WASHINGTON, March 8 (Reuters) - Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard stressed on Tuesday the urgency of finishing long-running world trade talks this year and touted a proposed Asia-Pacific pact as a "large step forward" for free trade.
"The (Doha) round simply must conclude this year. Twenty-eleven is our last and best hope to get this done," Gillard said in a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, one day after meeting with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.
Gillard's appeal for a swift conclusion to the nine-year-old Doha round comes one week after the U.S. Trade Representative's office warned the talks risked becoming irrelevant unless major developing countries like China, Brazil and India make better offers to open their markets.
The negotiations were launched in late 2001 with the goal of helping poor countries prosper through trade.
Since then, talks have been hamstrung by disagreements over how much the United States and the EU should cut farm subsidies and tariffs and how much major developing countries should open their markets in exchange.
Earlier this year, top trade negotiators set a new goal to reach a deal by the end of 2011. But World Trade Organization Director Pascal Lamy recently warned the pace of talks has been too slow to reach that deadline
Australia, as a major agricultural exporter, is eager for a deal that would tear down farm tariffs.
However, aided by strong demand from China and other fast-growing markets, its economy is booming compared to the United States. Gillard told the U.S. business group that "Australia beat the global recession" and emerged as "the world's strongest advanced economy".
Gillard, who will speak on Wednesday to a joint meeting of Congress, said Australia was eager to finish talks with the United States, Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, Chile, Peru, New Zealand and Brunei on the TransPacific Partnership (TTP) pact.
"Every so often we take a large step forward on trade arrangements -- and the TPP is shaping up as one of these. It will deepen the links between some key economies of Asia and the Americas ... and provide a platform for wider regional trade liberalization," Gillard said
Negotiators hope to finish talks on the regional free trade agreement by the time Obama hosts the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Hawaii in November.
(Reporting by Doug Palmer; Editing by Philip Barbara)