By Terry Wade
LIMA, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Leaders from 21 Pacific Rim economies are expected to deepen their commitment to free trade in the face of protectionist threats at a summit in Peru this weekend, and promise swift action on the global financial crisis.
One idea gaining traction at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, or APEC, is to forge a regional free-trade zone from existing bilateral pacts shared by its members such as China, Japan, Mexico, Russia and the United States.
Following the direction of the Group of 20 leading economies, which met in Washington last week, APEC will also ask its trade ministers to make another push this year for the Doha global trade agreement, according to the chairman of the committee working on the final declaration.
But Doha talks have suffered repeated setbacks, so a regional solution could provide an alternative for APEC countries, which together produce more than half of the global economic output.
APEC members Australia, the United States and Peru, among others, have backed the regional approach, sometimes alongside Doha.
"Canada continues to support trade liberalization through the World Trade Organization and through regional and bilateral agreements," said Stockwell Day, minister of international trade for Canada, another APEC member.
An APEC free-trade deal would take several years to seal and trade pacts may not be a priority for U.S. President-elect Barack Obama. But a regional agreement could be easier to reach because it would exclude India, Brazil and the European Union.
Gonzalo Gutierrez, chairman of the APEC committee drafting the final declaration, said the heads of state would issue on Sunday at the end of the two-day summit a stand-alone communique on the international financial crisis.
"We're including substantive elements that come from the declaration of the G20," he said.
Nine of 21 APEC members, including China and Japan, also belong to the G20, which last week agreed to take rapid action, including fiscal stimulus measures, to stabilize financial markets and restore growth in a worsening global economy.
The G20 also said it would review accounting standards, credit rating agencies and better regulate some risky derivatives.
But specific actions were not announced and G20 finance ministers were instructed to work out details by March before another summit.
Patricia Haslach, the U.S. ambassador to APEC, said the Peru meeting would mainly push trade, leaving bigger financial issues to a more global forum.
"(The G20) was focused on the financial situation. APEC is going to be focusing on the trade side," she said.
Small countries say they are especially worried that, faced with recessions, big economies will turn inward. They want APEC members to go further than the G20, which agreed to avoid raising trade barriers over the next 12 months.
Peru's economy has grown for seven years, lifted largely by demand from China, which has a voracious appetite for the Andean country's copper, zinc and iron ore. The two countries will announce they have reached a bilateral trade deal at APEC.
"What worries me is that despite what the G20 says, it doesn't have the heart or mind to understand how the problems of protectionism and state-centered development would affect us," Peruvian President Alan Garcia said. (Additional reporting by Louise Egan in Ottawa; Marco Aquino and Dana Ford in Lima; Editing by Fiona Ortiz and Eric Beech)